Exploring The Waste Land
A note page linked from The Waste Land, Part V, line 429

Eliot's note for line 429

V. Gerard de Nerval, Sonnet El Desdichado.

Commentator's note

For Part V, line 429

429)  Le Prince d'Aquitaine à la tour abolie

Eliot refers us to the opening lines of El Desdichado

Je suis le Ténébreux, - le Veuf, - l'Inconsolé,
Le Prince d'Aquitaine à la Tour abolie:
Ma seule Etoile est morte, - et mon luth constellé
Porte le Soleil noir de la Mélancolie.

which can be translated as:

I am the Darkened Soul, - the Widower, - the Inconsolable,
The Prince of Aquitaine at the abandoned Tower:
My sole star is dead, - and my bejewelled lute
Bears the black Sun of Melancholy.

Gérard de Nerval was the pen name of the French poet Gérard Labrunie. El Desdichado is the best known sonnet of his collection Les Chimeres (The Chimeras, 1854). El Desdichado is Spanish for The Unfortunate One, The Disinherited or The Outcast.

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Topics:

T 83 - Nerval, Gérard de

Links:

L 222 - Translation of Gérard de Nerval's "El Desdichado"
Richard Sieburth translation (with an essay)
L 223 - Translation of Gérard de Nerval's "El Desdichado"
Andrew Lang translation (with an essay)
L 224 - Translation of Gérard de Nerval's "El Desdichado"
Daniel Mark Epstein translation
L 225 - Translation of Gérard de Nerval's "El Desdichado"
Robert Duncan translation
L 226 - Translation of Gérard de Nerval's "El Desdichado"
Unknown translator (1)
L 227 - Translation of Gérard de Nerval's "El Desdichado"
Unknown translator (2)

Exploring The Waste Land
File name: nq429.html
File date: Sunday, September 29, 2002
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