It has been a busy couple of days, I missed posting on the actual anniversary of Verlaine's death on January 8. He died in Paris in 1896. I know enough French to enjoy some literature in the original and to navigate in a Francophone environment. There's an earlier blog about how and why I decided to take German after Latin II instead of French.
In his poem Malines, Verlaine wrote about les prés sans fiun.." the endless meadows.
Malines is the French name for Mechelen, in northern Belgium. My maternal grandmother was born near Charleroi and spoke French as her native language. Verlaine also wrote about Charleroi in Belgium. I grew up near the American town of that name south of Pittsburgh. That Charleroi plays a major role in my second novel, which I am currently revising.
But back to those endless meadows. Before I knew this poem, I used this image from near where we lived in Saluda County, SC as endless fields for a poem in my first poetry book, Places and Times (eLectio Publishing 2015). The second line contains the fields; I include the entire poem.
The Island
No islander am I, but all the same
I wander green fields that go forever,
Rolling on towards a distant tree line
Or extending along to a sheltered cove.
At times I am invited, encouraged
Even, to stay for longer duration,
Taking my place alongside the others,
Savoring the stillness of hallowed space,
Watching colors brightening with the sun
And listening to wafting songs of praise
Resounding over and over again.
Contentment I find there from distant waves
And storms that come clashing onto the coast,
Until the stinging subtle reminder
That I am sojourner, not citizen.
Then turns my gaze once again to the strand
And beyond to the mainland, hovering
As it were above the waves, beckoning
Me to return and remain there.
On the mainland I indeed have a place
High on a hill. From its wooded crest my
Gaze penetrates the mists which are covering
The island. I have memories of the
Green pleasant hills but now I turn inland
To see the beckoning and distant hills
And link to the Verlaine:
https://clicnet.swarthmore.edu/litterature/classique/verlaine/malines.html
My books:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=arthur+turfa+books&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss
https://www.blurb.com/b/10799783-the-botleys-of-beaumont-county
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