Pleurait un choeur immense
Et ces longs cris dont la démence
Semble percer l'enfer.
Et puis la mort, et le silence
Montant comme un mur noir.
... Parfois au loin se laissait voir
Un feu qui se balance.
Translation
On the ocean’s steely swell
an immense chorus wailed
and the frenzied cries exhaled
seem to transfix hell.
And then death, and the deathly pall
building like a black wall.
... meantime a swaying light
shone afar in the night.
Notes: (Published in Les Marges, december
1912) : this is about the Titanic, that went down in April 15, 1912. The
“feu qui se balance" probably refers to the Californian, the
nearest ship to the Titanic, that did not at first hear the alarm (it was the Carpathia
that arrived sooner).
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