A Good Word for The Two Pigeons

Bewildering Stories often receives compliments intended for various authors, and we are glad to forward them. This week, though, we have received one that goes to a translator and thence to a famous singer and ultimately to a world-famous poet. And it prompts us to update our Translations index.

Thank you for this beautiful translation of Aznavour’s poetry and music.

And thank you, dear reader, for the reminder. The poem and the translation — which is deliberately somewhat literal — appeared in issue 291, some thirteen years ago. Here it is again:

Les Deux Pigeons Prose Header

Special Challenge

Les Deux Pigeons — The Two Pigeons

lyrics by Charles Aznavour

based on Les Deux Pigeons, by Jean de La Fontaine

While the 17th-century fable has a happy ending, its adaptation in song is practically a medieval lament. The song’s beauty is due partly to the simplicity of the classic eight-syllable lines with assonance sometimes doing humble duty for a rhyme. However, the song is effective mostly for the sheer music of the language as expressed by Charles Aznavour’s incomparable voice.

Note especially the low, sensual tone of -ou- in:
mon bel amour [...] Le doux bruit d’ailes de son retour
and the bitterness of the high rounded vowel [y], spelled —û— and —u— in:
Le bonheur qui nous était dû
Sur le chemin du temps perdu.

Poets, attempt the impossible. A translation is provided for your convenience; rewrite it as a poem in English — even though the price will be a feeling of... regret... for the music lost in the turning compass of the wind...

Deux pigeons s’aimaient d’amour tendre
Mais l’un d’eux a quitté leur toit.
Qu’ils sont longs les jours de l’attente
Et longues sont les nuits sans toi.

Un pigeon regrettait son frère,
Moi, je regrette mon bel amour.
Comme lui, j’attends un bruit d’ailes,
Le doux bruit d’ailes de son retour.

J’ai laissé partir avec elle
Le bonheur qui nous était dû
Sur le chemin du temps perdu.

Amants, heureux amants,
Redites-le souvent,
Une absence est toujours trop longue,
Rien ne sert de courir le monde.
L’amour passe et les feuilles tombent
Quand tourne la rose des vents.

refrain

Deux pigeons s’aimaient d’amour tendre
Mais l’un d’eux a quitté leur toit.
Qu’ils sont longs les jours de l’attente
Et longues sont les nuits sans toi.

Un pigeon regrettait son frère,
Moi, je regrette mon bel amour.
Comme lui, j’attends un bruit d’ailes,
Le doux bruit d’ailes de son retour.

J’ai laissé partir avec elle
Le bonheur qui nous était dû
Sur le chemin du temps perdu.

Two pigeons were deeply in love
But one of them left their home.
The days of pining are long,
And long are the nights without you.

A pigeon longed for his mate,
I long for my sweet love.
I, too, await the flutter of wings,
The sweet, soft wings of love’s return.

She is gone, and I cannot find
The happiness that was hers and mine
On the paths of our lost time.

Lovers, happy lovers,
Say it again and again:
Any absence is too long,
It does no good to wander the world.
Love passes, and the leaves fall
With the turning compass of the wind.

translation by Don Webb