MAKALAH SASTRA PARIS AND RIVER SEINE IN FRENCH POEMS OLEH Dr. DANNY SUSANTOM.A Faculty of Humanities Universitas Indonesia

Paris and RiverSeine in French Poems*

Dr. Danny Susanto, M. A

Faculty of Humanities- Universitas Indonesia

Depok, Desember2019

                                                         dcamilo@yahoo.com

Abstract

       Paris,  the capital ofFrance has the reputation of being the mostbeautiful and romantic city in the world, filled with historic associations, and remaining enormously leading in culture, art, fashion, food anddesign. Labeled the City of Light (la Ville Lumière) and Capitalof Fashion, it has plentiful iconic landmarks, such as the world's most visitedtourist site the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum,  Notre-Dame Cathedral the Arc de Triomphemaking it the most popular tourist destination in the world where some  45 million tourists come annually.

       Paris with its river Seine has inspired a large number ofwriters and poets from around the world. Such as. Voltaire, Victor Hugo,Baudelaire, Hemingway who have found their source of inspiration in Paris. Thecity has conquered the hearts of these poets and many literary works about this city and river Seine have been created. They include Louis Aragon(1897-1982)(Paris), Maurice Careme(1899-1978) (la tour Eiffel/Eiffel tower), Gérard deNERVAL(1808-1855) (Notre Dame de Paris /Notre Dame of Paris), AndréLaude(1936-1995)(Parisscope), Jacques Charpentreau (1926-2016)(L'embouteillage/Traffic jam) and inspired  Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918)(Le pont Mirabeau/Mirabeau bridge). Somepoems venerate the beauty and the attraction of the city including its important monuments, others deplore thetraffic jam and pollution suffered by the city. One poem narrates the unhappyending of a love story. The image consists of three elements (Seine, time andlove) that have some thing in common: to pass. They are paradoxically connectedto the Mirabeau Bridge, which represents stability.

Paris and RiverSeine in French Poems

       Paris thecapital of France, is one of the biggest agglomerations in  Europe with the population of 2.2 millionsliving in the central  area and 12millions living in surrounding metropolitan areas. Located in the northern partof France and in the bank  of River Seine,  Paris has the reputation of being the mostbeautiful and romantic city in the world, filled with historic associations,  and remaining enormously leading in culture,art, fashion, food and design sectors Labeled the City of Light (laVille Lumière) and Capital of Fashion, it has world's best and mostluxurious fashion designers and cosmetics, such as  L'Oréal ,Lancôme, Yves Saint-Laurent, Guerlain Chanel, Clarins,  Dior, etc.. A large part of the city,including the River Seine, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.the city ishome of  the second highest number ofMichelin restaurants in the world and has plentiful iconic landmarks, such asthe world's most visited tourist site the Eiffel Tower, the LouvreMuseum,  Notre-Dame Cathedral the Arc deTriomphe,  Moulin Rouge, and Lido, making it the most populartourist destination in the world where some  45 million tourists come annually.

       To cross Parisalong the river Seine is to taste a thousand escapades on the river, banks,bridges and islands, day and night, left bank or right bank. By boat, on foot,by bike, people laze, walk, or  dine, danceand of course  shop!  

      Some touristspots a long the river Seine side include :Arsenal Port,  Piscine Joséphine Baker, Jardin Tino-Rossi,Typical booksellers on the banks of the Seine, From the Royal Bridge to the Sully Bridge, Square of Vert-Galant, .thebridges of Paris The thirty-seven Parisian bridges offer striking panoramas ofthe city seen from the river, Orsay Museum.

Paris:in the footsteps of great writers

       Paris with itsriver Seine has inspired a large number of writers and poets from around the world.thanks to  Académie Française, theComédie Française and the Grande Sorbonne, Paris has become a literary capitalof France and shines throughout Europe. Legendary writers and poets such as.voltaire, Victor Hugo, Baudelaire, Hemingway have found their source ofinspiration in Paris. This  beautiful andromantic, city has conquered the hearts of these poets  and many literary works about this city havebeen created.

       "BreatheParis, it preserves your soul," once Victor Hugo said. Many places inParis were meeting points of  thesewriters to meet each other to exchange and write .

 In the Latin Quarter of Paris, there is theQuai Lanzun, at 17 Quai d'Anjou, the place that housed the "club of hashishsmokers" where poets  including Balzacor Baudelaire frequently spent their leisure time.

       In the 6tharrondissement,  there is  Café Procope (13 Ancienne Comedie street )the oldestcafé in Paris where  Franklin andVoltaire were regular visitors. It was at the Café de Flore or Au deux magots (inSaint Germain des Prés, opposite the church) that the philosophical andsubversive ideas of Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus, Vian and Prévert were born. AlbertCamus resided for a while at the Hotel Madison, 143 Boulevard Saint Germain.

       Montparnasse,at the Closerie des Lilas, was frequented by Hemingway who wrote “The sun alsorises”  in six weeks. For this  American writer, "Paris is a party!"

People wantingto tribute to some of the greatest writers, can visit Montparnasse cemetery wherethe bodies of Sartre, Beckett, Huysmans, Baudelaire and Maupassant were buried .

Parisand river Seine in poems

Here are somemost prominent poems about Paris written by some remarkable poets:  We start with Louis Aragon(1897-1982)surrealist,  who wrote poem  “Paris”  at the age of 47. Written  in strict in quintains, the poet   glorified the city in the first  lines of the first stanza and described it asthe city where  every thing is finedespite the bad times.  

Où fait-il bon même au coeur de l’orage

Où fait-il clair même au coeur de la nuit

(Whereit feels good even in the heart of the storm

Whereit is clear even in the heart of the night.)

Despite thesuffering and humiliation and despite the war and the destruction as the resultof German occupation,  Paris remains strong:

« carreaux cassés l’espoir encore y luit « (broken tiles hope still shinesthere)

The power ofParis is further expressed in the lines of the third stanza:

Rien n’a l’éclat de Paris dans la poudre

Rien n’est si pur que son front d’insurgé

Rien n’est ni fort ni le feu ni la foudre

Que mon Paris défiant les dangers

Rien n’est si beau que ce Paris que j’ai.

(Nothinghas the brilliance of Paris in the powder

Nothingis so pure as his insurgent front

Nothingis strong neither fire nor lightning

Maymy Paris defy the dangers

Nothingis so beautiful as this Paris I have.)

SharingAragon’s admiration for Paris,   Maurice Careme(1899-1978) a poet of Belgianorigin also gave his tribute to the city through his poem : la tour Eiffel(Eiffel tower), focusing on the city’s most well-known monument, Eiffel towerbuilt by Gustave Eiffel in the occasion of Paris Universal Exposition in 1889.this monumenthas become the symbol of the French capital, and one of the main tourist sites.through his poem, “la tour Eiffel” (Eiffel tower),  written in one single stanza of 18 lines, Caremeused metaphor to describe the tower comparing it with a giraffe in the first lines

Mais oui, je suis une girafe,

M’a raconté la tour Eiffel,

Et si ma tête est dans le ciel,

C’est pour mieux brouter les nuages,

(Yes,I'm a giraffe,

EiffelTower told me,

Andif my head is in the sky,

Itis to better graze the clouds),

Careme also raisedthe diverse aspects offered by the city  andthat those visiting Paris always have always some thing to do, some thing toadmire , some thing to enjoy . The river Seine is also evoked in this poem:

Maisj’ai quatre pieds bien assis

Dans une courbe de la Seine.

On ne s’ennuie pas à Paris :

(ButI have four feet sitting well

Ina curve of the Seine.

Wedo not get bored in Paris.)

The venerationof abundance of Paris monuments is also portrayed by Gérard de NERVAL(1808-1855)in  his poem “Notre Dame de Paris “ denoting French gothic cathedral, Notre Dame inParis), built in 1345. Composed in double sestets, the  poem is an homage to the monument for itsstrong attraction observable  in thefirst and second line of the second stanza:

Bien des hommes, de tous les pays de la terre

Viendront, pour contempler cette ruine austère,

(Manypeople from all countries of the earth

Willcome, to contemplate this austere ruin,)

However, thispoet expresses his disquiet that this monument will not resist the test of timein line: dua, tiga, 4, lima:

Mais, dans quelque mille ans, le Temps fera broncher

Comme un loup fait un bœuf, cette carcasse lourde,

Tordra ses nerfs de fer, et puis d'une dent sourde

Rongera tristement ses vieux os de rocher !

(Butin a thousand years, Time will flinch

Likea wolf becoming  an ox, this heavycarcass,

Willtwist his iron nerves  and then with adull tooth

Willconsume  sadly  his old rock bones!)

On the otherhand, in "Pariscope", a poem composed by  the poet André Laude(1936-1995), with onepretty long stanza containing 23 lines, opposes two facets of the capital.first,(in line 1 and dua) he talked about the great monuments and then proceed  (line tiga) with  the pleasure of Parisians to walk aroun insuch a beautiful city:

C’est la paradedes grands monuments

Tour Eiffel Notre-Dame

La foule va et vient baguenaude des Champs-Elysées à laDéfense,

(Itis the parade of the great monuments

EiffelTower Notre-Dame

Thecrowd comes and goes from Champs-Elysees, to la Defense)

But the poemquickly denounces the omnipresence of the cars and the pollution it generates (line7, 8, 9,10, 11,12, 13):

Dans les voitures il y a des gens qui habitent

dans de grandes tours le long des grands boulevards

et qui achètent mille choses dans de grands magasins

et puis vont flâner le long des quais

pour oublier les fumées des usines

qui polluent la Seine

et tuent les légumes dans les jardins de banlieue.

(Inthe cars there are people who live

inbig towers along the big boulevards

andwho buy a thousand things in department stores

andthen go strolling  along the docks

toforget the fumes of the factories

pollutingthe Seine

andkilling vegetables in peripheral gardens)

The poet alsoprotests against the consumer society, against the false idols of today,opposing them the Egyptian goddess Karomama(line 16 to 21):

Lemétro conduit aux musées

où derrière les vitrines lumineuses

la reine Karomama sourit avec ses lèvres orientales

et des jeunes filles rêveuses

vont acheter à la FNAC un album plein de photographies

de dieux et d’idoles qu’elles contemplent avec des yeuxtristes

(Subwayleads to museums

wherebehind the light showcases

QueenKaromama smiling with her oriental lips

anddreamy girls

willbuy at the FNAC an album full of photographs

ofgods and idols they contemplate with gloomy eyes)

This unpleasantside of Paris is also enunciated in the poem L'embouteillage(Traffic jam), alsohaving one single stanza of 22 lines  by JacquesCharpentreau (1926-2016) where he deplores  the heavy traffic suffered by the city :

Lesvoitures stoppent.

Blanches, grises, vertes, bleues,

Tortues à la queue leu leu,

Jaunes, rouges, beiges, noires,

Tortues têtues Tintamarre !

Bloquées dans vos carapaces

Regardez-moi bien : je passe !

Thecars stop.

(White,gray, green, blue,

Turtlesin the tail one after the other,

Yellow,red, beige, black,

Stubbornnoisy Turtles!

Cloggedin your shells

Lookat me: I am passing!)

Andfinally,  Paris’s  river Seine has inspired   Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918)to compose his famous poem Le pont Mirabeau (Mirabeau bridge) referring to oneof the bridges in the city.  The poem has4 quatrains and 4 couplets. Written following his separation from painter,Marie Laurencin the poet narrated his love story with sad ending.

Le PontMirabeau
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Et nos amours
Faut-il qu'il m'en souvienne
La joie venait toujours après la peine
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
Les mains dans les mains restons face à face
Tandis que sous
Le pont de nos bras passe
Des éternels regards l'onde si lasse
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
L'amour s'en va comme cette eau courante
L'amour s'en va
Comme la vie est lente
Et comme l'Espérance est violente
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
Passent les jours et passent les semaines
Ni temps passé
Ni les amours reviennent
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure 

Mirabeau Bridge 
Under Mirabeau Bridge runs the Seine
with all our loves,
which I must recall,
joy forever following pain.
Night sounds the hours, days depart, I remain.
Hand in hand let us stand face to face
while under
the bridge of our arms pass
our time-locked eyes in a lazy wave.
Night sounds the hours, days depart, I remain.
And love runs like this running water,
love runs,
sure as life drags,
sure as hope forces.
Night sounds the hours, days depart, I remain.
Days pass into weeks that pass.
Neither times passed
nor my love return.
Under Mirabeau bridge runs the Seine.
Night sounds the hours, days depart, I remain.

Although theimages used by Apollinaire in the "Mirabeau bridge" may seem simple,they are nevertheless renewed by the poet. This one broke the classicalstructure of the comparison, usually composed of a compared and a comparing.here, the image consists of three elements (Seine, time and love) that havesome thing in common: to pass. They are paradoxically connected to the MirabeauBridge, which represents stability. Each of these elements is thus at the sametime the compared and the comparing of the two others: the poet creates thus amobile and not fixed comparison, in the image of its three components.

Apollinaireoffers us in "The Mirabeau Bridge" a resolutely modern poem, in spiteof appearances.  Apollinaire takes upthemes and registers of traditional poetry to better release the flipped imagesby renewing them. The poet is thus faithful to the avant-garde approach of thisbeginning of the century which wishes a poetic rupture.

Conclusion

Paris and itsriver Seine have always been the center of attraction of visitors coming fromall over the world.

Similarly, theyhave also been the source of inspiration for literary works including thepoems.

Many poets,both French and non French, have written legendary and remarkable poems onthem.

Most adored thebeauty of the city including its monuments and its diversity. Some, however,regreted the negative sides including traffic jump, pollution and consumerismof its people.

The river Seinehas particularly inspired Apolines to narrate his rupture with his lover in oneof his masterpieces, le pont Mirabeau ( Mirabeau bridge) presenting doubleruptures: love rupture and poetic rupture proving that he is   one ofthe  pioneers of avant-garde poetry inhis time.

References

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* Disampaikan pada SeminarInternasional Sastra Indonesia, 6 s.D. 9 Desember2019 pada Banjarmasin.

MAKALAH SASTRA : PARIS AND RIVER SEINE IN FRENCH POEMS OLEH Dr. DANNY SUSANTO,M.A (Faculty of Humanities- Universitas Indonesia) Terjemahan Bahasa Indonesianya Baca serta Lihat selengkapnya di sini !!

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