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% Mirabeau Bridge
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% Translated by Reuben Thomas; revised 30th April 2018
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% Converted from LyX 19/12/00; used my poem package 22/12/00; made
% HeVeA-friendly 11/2/02
%


\documentclass[english]{article}
\usepackage{a4,babel,palatino}
\usepackage{poem}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
\usepackage[pdftex]{hyperref}

\pagestyle{empty}


\begin{document}
\begin{poem}
\title{Mirabeau Bridge}
\poemepigraph{Translation of Guillaume Apollinaire’s \emph{Le pont Mirabeau}}
\stanza*
’Neath Mirabeau Bridge flows the Seine \\
And our love \\
Must I recall then \\
That joy came always after pain \\

\stanza*
\tab Come the night, sound the hour \\
\tab The days pass, I endure \\

\stanza*
Hand in hand let’s stand face to face \\
While under \\
Our bridge of arms race \\
The floods tired of the eternal gaze \\
% Alternatives:
%
% The flood tired of our constant gaze
%
% The bridge our arms raise
% The flood flows tired of our fixed gaze

\stanza*
\tab Come the night, sound the hour \\
\tab The days pass, I endure \\

\stanza*
Love runs out\footnote{Originally “departs”} as these waters flow \\
Love runs out\footnote{Originally “departs”} \\
As our life is slow \\
And as our hopes in violence grow\footnote{Originally “And as Hope does violent grow”.} \\

\stanza*
\tab Come the night, sound the hour \\
\tab The days pass, I endure \\

\stanza*
The days pass, the weeks pass and then\footnote{Originally I settled on “The days and weeks pass out of ken”, writing: ‘or “The days and weeks
  are gone and then”: avoids awkwardness of “ken” but makes the
  next line sound like a consequence.’ In 2018 I tried “The days pass and the weeks pass then”, writing “the solution above is more ambiguous”, but in 2024 this version seemed better to me, and I don’t think it makes the following lines sound like a consequence.} \\
Nor time past \\
Nor love comes again \\
’Neath Mirabeau Bridge flows the Seine \\

\stanza*
\tab Come the night, sound the hour \\
\tab The days pass, I endure \\

\author{Reuben Thomas}
\poemdate{October 1998–February 2000, 22nd–30th April 2018, 3rd May 2024}
\end{poem}
\begin{notes}
  8-3-5-8 metre (shorter than the original), and with the original’s
  rhyming scheme.

  \emph{I have set this poem (and the French original)
  \href{http://rrt.sc3d.org/Music/Scores/Songs/}{to music}.}

  \emph{It’s amazing quite how deeply this poem is embedded in the French
  psyche. There’s a pop setting by Marc Lavoine; a song by him used to
  promote Paris in summer 2004 quotes “la joie venait toujours après
  la peine”, and Mylène Farmer sings, in \emph{Californie} on
  \emph{Anamorphosée}, “vienne la nuit, sonne l’heure”. I doubt this
  is more than the tip of the iceberg. \emph{31st August 2004}}
\end{notes}
\end{document}
