Et la mer et l'amour - The sea and love

by dimerization

Summary:

My attempt at an English translation of "Et la mer et l'amour" by Pierre de Marbeuf.

Posting this in the GreedFall fandom because the poem Vasco recites at the end of his romance is a rough translation of "Et la mer et l'amour" and I think it's terrible, so I decided to try to write a better one.

Notes:

• A translation of Et la mer et l'amour by Pierre de Marbeuf

I don't actually speak French. This is all Google translate + a French-English dictionary + what I could understand based on my knowledge of Spanish. If you DO speak French you should DEFINITELY let me know what you think of the translation. Also let me know if I missed any double entendres. There's one in the first line that heavily informed how I translated it, but there may be more. There seems to be a lot of wordplay in the poem.

The original poem is a Petrarchan sonnet. I didn't do a real Petrarchan because I, um, forgot what the rhyme scheme was supposed to be, but this poem has the right number of lines and the proper general arrangement for a sonnet. If Ozymandias is a sonnet, then so is this! That's my argument and I'm sticking to it.

The sea and love are sailed by common stars.
Equally bitter are they, dram for dram;
Both the unlucky to their depths will damn,
For both are tempest-torn, and leave their scars.

The one who fears the waves should stay ashore,
The one who fears love's torments must beware
And keep their heart proof to both lust and care,
Safe from the deeps to stay forevermore.

Whence was love birthed but from the sea's own womb?
Yet fire, born of love, shall find its tomb
Within the sea's embrace, which love endures.

If water could extinguish love, then I
Would fill an ocean with the tears I'd cry
To quench a love that burns me such as yours.

 

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Original text:

Et la mer et l'amour ont l'amer pour partage,
Et la mer est amère, et l'amour est amer,
L'on s'abîme en l'amour aussi bien qu'en la mer,
Car la mer et l'amour ne sont point sans orage.

Celui qui craint les eaux qu'il demeure au rivage,
Celui qui craint les maux qu'on souffre pour aimer,
Qu'il ne se laisse pas à l'amour enflammer,
Et tous deux ils seront sans hasard de naufrage.

La mère de l'amour eut la mer pour berceau,
Le feu sort de l'amour, sa mère sort de l'eau,
Mais l'eau contre ce feu ne peut fournir des armes.

Si l'eau pouvait éteindre un brasier amoureux,
Ton amour qui me brûle est si fort douloureux,
Que j'eusse éteint son feu de la mer de mes larmes.

- Pierre de Marbeuf