French Poetry Selection (Second Edition)

Author: Cheng Zenghou Translated
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: France covers an area of less than 600,000 square kilometers and has a population of over 60 million①. Located between 42° and 51° north latitude and 5° and 8° east longitude, France sits at the western tip of the European continent. In terms of both area and population, it is neither too small nor too large, making it a medium-sized country. However, in Western Europe, France can be considered a "major power" in both territory and population. France's geographical environment is unique and distinctive. First, France resembles a regular hexagon, and the French term "hexagon" (l'exagone) is capitalized to refer to "metropolitan France." Second, three sides of France border the sea: the southwest and northwest are the Atlantic Ocean, and the southeast is the Mediterranean Sea. The other three sides are adjacent to neighboring countries: the east borders Italy and Switzerland, separated by the Alps, and the south borders Spain, separated by the Pyrenees. Only the northeast is a plain, bordering Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany, with Germany also visible across the Rhine River. France is where the continent meets the sea. Surrounded by natural barriers, France has low mountains, gentle rivers, and a pleasant climate. Its territory is self-contained, a land of green, facing the allure of the blue sea and sheltered by the yellow mountains. France is also a harmonious coexistence of different natural landscapes. It was first a meeting point between Mediterranean and Atlantic cultures, later becoming a frontier for the Old World to reach the New. France's unique geographical background undoubtedly influenced its historical course. In European history, France is the result of multiple cultures converging and colliding. The people, history, language, culture, literature, and art of France all bear this imprint. "French" is not a racial designation but simply a concept of nationality. Over the course of its long history, France has both conquered neighboring countries and been invaded by foreign tribes. Different ethnic groups have been drawn to this land, coming and going, leaving their footprints behind. The Mediterranean people were nomadic and skilled hunters, the northern people were blond and tall, and the later Alpine people engaged in agriculture, together forming the core of the Celts in France's prehistoric Gaul period. The Roman Empire conquered Gaul from the southeast in the first century BC; in the fifth century AD, the Franks, a branch of the Germanic tribes, invaded from the northeast, forever leaving the name "France" on this land; the Normans (meaning "Northern People," originally from the Scandinavian Peninsula) landed by sea in the 10th century. In modern times, large numbers of immigrants from Western, Eastern Europe, and North Africa have settled in France. France became a "melting pot" of ethnic fusion in European history, and "French" is merely the product of this fusion. Born from conflict, united in one. Thus, the French nation was born. Unfortunately, for two thousand years, the land of France has not always been peaceful and tranquil. The French people have endured a painful and struggling process, a history of tragedy and rise. France is not an ancient civilization, and it did not have remarkable splendor in ancient times. However, in the annals of modern history, in 1789, the people of Paris shed blood to overthrow the feudal autocracy, a moment of in human history; in 1848, Parisian workers shed blood to defend their right to survival, another moment in human history; and in 1871, the Parisian proletariat shed blood to attempt the establishment of a socialist government, yet another moment in human history. Representing the common ideals of humanity, the French people have written bold strokes in the recent chapter of world history, driving the wheels of progress. Those who created French history include both the great figures who dominated the stage and the countless men and women behind the scenes. Historians record the successes and failures of historical figures, while poets reflect the hearts of ordinary people. Over the thousand years of France's written history, how the French have faced nature, society, and their own souls has been preserved in the poems they have written for over a thousand years. Poetry emerged and evolved in tandem with history. History is the external behavior of people, while poetry is the internal contemplation of the human mind. As people create history, they have words to say and songs to sing. The sweetness, bitterness, and struggles of creating history, the joys and sorrows of facing life, must be expressed through poetry, through the language of poetry. Poetry and history are both centered on humanity—they are products of humanity, and at the same time, mirrors for people to reflect on themselves. Poetry and history are two aspects of the same thing. French poet P. Seghers, in his selected anthology French Poetry, said: "Of course, poets are major events in history, and they are often the true voice of history. For French history, poets have never been separated from it. Poets are the conscience and language of their time, expressing their era, and sometimes even transcending it."② In this sense, the thousand years of civilization in France can be condensed into a Selected Poems of France. A Selected Poems of France is a history of the French nation, a spiritual history of the French nation. The prerequisite for the emergence and existence of national poetry is the formation and development of the national language. In 50 BC, Roman Emperor Caesar conquered Gaul. From then on, the Gauls no longer spoke their Celtic language, and the social lingua franca was the Latin learned from Roman soldiers and merchants, known as Vulgar Latin, or popular Latin, distinct from classical Latin. The ancient form of modern French, Old French, evolved from Vulgar Latin, with a transitional form called Romance. In 842, France's first document written in Romance, The Strasbourg Oaths (Les Serments de Strasbourg), was created. 842 marked the birth cry of the new French language. In the mid-9th century, as French was still in its infancy, the golden age of Chinese poetry had already declined, with Li Bai and Du Fu, who represented the "atmosphere of the Tang Dynasty," having passed away one after another. In 842, the mid-Tang period had also passed, and the late Tang, with a few exceptions like Du Mu and Li Shangyin, had already begun the overall shift from poetry to ci. In the 9th century, France's literary history saw the creation of a poem, The Hymn to Saint Eulalie, with an anonymous author, consisting of 29 lines in eight-syllable meters. The poem was written in the second half of the 9th century, over a thousand four hundred years after Confucius compiled the Book of Songs in the late Spring and Autumn period. "The Three Hundred Poems" were even compiled from over three thousand older poems. In fact, comparing the origins of French with the rise and fall of Tang poetry, or comparing the composition date of France's first poem with the publication date of China's first poetry anthology, may not be a meaningful endeavor. We should place French poetry within the context of European literary history and compare its origins with the poetry of other countries in Western Europe. First, let's look at neighboring countries. Germany's earliest poem, The Song of Hildebrand, appeared in the 8th century and was recorded in writing in the 9th century; while Germany's folk epic, The Song of the Nibelungs, was composed around 1200. Spain's epic, The Song of the Cid, emerged in the mid-12th century. Italy's earliest poet, Cecco Angiolieri, was born in 1260 and left behind the famous 24-line poem If I Were a Flame, suggesting that Italian poetry emerged even earlier. Across the sea from France, England, with its Old English epic Beowulf, had its manuscript copied around 1000, but Old English poetry dates back to the second half of the 7th century to the 8th century. Another major European power, Russia, saw the creation of its national epic, The Tale of Igor's Campaign, in the 11th to 12th centuries. From this perspective, French poetry developed relatively early in Europe. Compared to the epics of other European countries, France's national epic, The Song of Roland, was composed earlier and was also more artistically mature.