"Or poems by Jacques Prévert, when night falls and you walk through the streets of Montmartre. You don’t need to understand all the words. It is like listening to music!"
What do you think of listening to poetry in a language you don't understand? If you're in that language's home country, wouldn't it be better to keep the earphones out and let the ambient sounds in?
Or maybe "along the quays of the Seine," the overheard speech is not what you want for your aesthetic experience. I could be not French at all, but whatever outside language the tourists brought in, or it could be French, but not the perfectly romantic dream of French you want for yourself.
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I've never understood the point of rhyme and meter. Music? Fine. Poetry? No thanks.
My opinion only ... worth about what you paid for it.
I think it's more for when you take long walks at night or in the early morning or maybe when you're in the subway or back in your hotel. Nobody is saying much then. There was a lot of street life in old movies about Paris and France -- street vendors calling out for customers, children playing in the street, somebody playing the accordion. I suspect it's quieter now -- everybody hurrying to where they have to be or glued to their devices, rather than Maurice Chevalier breaking into a song about little girls. When you're in a high density area, sure, take out the earbuds, but most of the people there are probably tourists anyway.
"What do you think of listening to poetry in a language you don't understand?"
I don't know what to think of that, since I have never heard it that way. One partial exception: in college I attended an old Greek play performed in Greek. Somewhat mystifying, as I recall.
But for those of us who know French, poetic audio accompaniment sounds like a nice option. In fact, for connoisseurs spoken French itself has a poetic quality. So I guess my answer to Althouse would be: it depends on the language. Try French--you might like it. (Of course, it doesn't have to be highfalutin' poetry.)
I like listening to it in French, and reading the text at the same time. With English I can "see the words" in my head as I listen. I can't do that with French.
Latin languages have a leg up on english because its much easier to rhyme.
I've often thought of listening to Homer in Greek, since its poetry. But hard to find an audio book of that.
I tune into French Canadian stations quite often. It reminds me of my younger life- as my Dad’s family spoke fluently and when together. Which was often.
Vpr has a music program and about 3-4 yrs ago, after Easter night Mass, I was gifted a French folksong that my Dad used to sing. It had a tweedle-eedle-eeee chorus, two men weaving harmonies together- threaded w/past love.
So, yes. Any language is beautiful, especially while reciting poetry.
My favorite French poem
Donc, si vous me croyez, mignonne,
Tandis que vostre âge fleuronne
En sa plus verte nouveauté,
Cueillez, cueillez vostre jeunesse :
Comme à ceste fleur la vieillesse
Fera ternir vostre beauté.
Y'er not gonna be that hot forever miss!
This has sort of been done in music.There was a time when French chantuers like Jacques Brel were widely listened to by English speakers who didn't understand much French. The tone of the voice and the cadence conveyed quite a bit of meaning.
And many non English speakers enjoy listening to Dylan.
Listening to or reading a poem in a language you don't understand is like showing a painting to a blind person. Poetry is words that can convey a deep meaning. If you don't understand the words, you are just hearing pseudo-music.
Or maybe "along the quays of the Seine,"
Are they Kways or Keys?
I see Paris
I see France
...
I like the poem On the Quay at Smirna
You'll have to pry my LP of Yvette Mimieux reading Baudelaire (in English), accompanied by groovy sitar music, from my cold dead hands.
I really like Cesaria Evora, who sings in Portuguese, although I don't know Portuguese at all. It's just music.
Given that I took years of HS French, when I was in France, my brain never switched off overhearing others, and I'd sometimes try to translate. It didn't often work.
In contrast, I was in a different foreign country for work once, and I knew none of the language, and my brain at one point simply shut off listening to adjacent speech. I recall one time the adjacent speakers were actually talking English, and it took a good 5-10 seconds for my brain to (1) realize they were speaking something I understood and (2) started listening. It was very much like a switch flipped, and I've always thought about that with wonder (and I'm apparently a nosy person that wants to hear what people are talking about!)
I do think foreign languages have their own cadence and rhythm, and learning that is a huge part of gaining fluency. You can't do that with Babbel, IMO.
I'm sorry, but when I hear the name Baudelaire I think of the scene in Groundhog Day when Murray quotes one of his poems. "...chaque...matin..."
Goethe is a poet I wish I could fully read in the original. I know enough German to recognize that every translation is only adequate.
Opera, anyone? Art song?
I can appreciate well-delivered poetry in English (and a little in Spanish and German) but walking around listening to poetry in a language I don't understand very well is a little too too, IYKWIM.
My wife and I spent a delightful eight days in and around Paris in 2017, and part of the charm of the experience for me was listening and trying to identify all the different languages being spoken around me. That's part of the local color too.
As for rhyme and meter, they're mnemonic devices.
This reminds me Baudelaire translated Poe because he so loved his making music with words - "tintinnabulation" an extreme example - and tried to do the same is his own poetry - so I think he would enjoy his poetry being compared to music.
A Verlaine poem was used to warn the French resistance of the Normandy invasion. It was broadcast the night before on BBC.
Blogger Howard said...
I like the poem On the Quay at Smirna
That is a short story by Hemingway and it's Smyrna. If there is also a poem, I haven't heard of it.
Reminded me: http://seanoneillwriter.com/mother-goose-rhymes-french/ Mots d’Heure, Gousses, Rames. Awesome.
"The long sobs of the violins in autumn,
Wound my heart with monotonous languor."
Also, going to Latin Mass is very cool.
It’s own kind of poetry.
Saecula saeculorum…
Kate beat me to it.
"What a waste of time! For someone else that would be an incredible waste of time..."
It is like listening to music!
With respect to poetry in French, you know what sounds even more like music?
French music. Listen to some French chansons instead.
Also, going to Latin Mass is very cool.
It’s own kind of poetry.
Try a Mass in Vietnamese. Thankfully, with the Mass, even when you don't know what the others are saying, you know what they are saying.
Poetry lost out to prose fiction in the 19th and 20th centuries. Now that the novel seems to be losing out, poetry may make a modest comeback, but it won't be living poets people will be listening to or reading.
French doesn't seem to be that hard, but the words are mushed or rushed together so much that it's hard to have real world conversations. Eventually you might just give up and try Spanish or German.
German please, Goethe.
https://www.deutschelyrik.de/kennst-du-das-land-1392.html
Edith Piaf. You don't have to understand her to enjoy her singing.
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