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G�rard de Nerval: Delfica (From French)

Delfica
G�rard de Nerval
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Click to hear me recite the original French

Daphne, do you still know that lay of yore
By sycamore, white laurel, myrtle shade,
By olive-tree, or trembling willow glade?
That love song still beginning evermore?

Recall that shrine great colonnades enclose?
The bitter lemons where your teeth have pressed,
The grotto, deadly to the reckless guest
Where the slain dragon�s ancient seed repose?

The gods you mourn for shall return at last
Time will restore the order of days past.
Prophetic gusts have shuddered through the lands

While yet the Sybil with a Latin mien
Sleeps underneath the arch of Constantine,
And undisturbed the portico still stands. 

The Original:

Delfica

La connais-tu, Dafn�, cette ancienne romance,
Au pied du sycomore, ou sous les lauriers blancs,
Sous l�olivier, le myrte, ou les saules tremblants,
Cette chanson d�amour qui toujours recommence ?...

Reconnais-tu le Temple au p�ristyle immense,
Et les citrons amers o� s�imprimaient tes dents,
Et la grotte, fatale aux h�tes imprudents,
O� du dragon vaincu dort l�antique semence ?...

Ils reviendront, ces Dieux que tu pleures toujours !
Le temps va ramener l�ordre des anciens jours ;
La terre a tressailli d�un souffle proph�tique...

Cependant la sibylle au visage latin
Est endormie encor sous l�arc de Constantin
� Et rien n�a d�rang� le s�v�re portique.
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