The Bridges of C
Timothy Adès
I've crossed the Loire at Cé (that's ‘C'),
the start of this whole tendency.
A song of ancient minstrelsy,
a knight, a nasty wound has he,
a rose on roads of vagrancy,
and breasts bereft of decency:
castle of some duke's lunacy,
swans on the ditches' buoyancy,
meadow of dancing ecstasy,
a bride's eternal constancy.
I drank chilled milk, fake fantasy:
false glories, long lay's poesy.
The Loire sweeps all my thoughts to sea,
trucks belly-up, sad sight to see,
and weapons lacking potency,
a smear of tears: despondency.
Dear France, forlorn expectancy!
I've crossed the bridge at Cé, or C.
Original by Louis Aragon
Translated by Timothy Adès
Author's Note:The poem dates from 1942, and was set to music by Poulenc in 1943.
Les Ponts de Cé, on the Loire near Angers: a strategic crossing, scene of bloody fighting in 1432, 1620 and 1940.
Crossing the Loire into the ‘Free Zone' Aragon became a Resistance fighter.
Lancelot crossed the perilous Pont de l'Épée for love of Guinevere.
Lay: a poem of octosyllables, with a single rhyme, much favoured in the Middle Ages, about love (often impossible) and chivalry. The chief exponent was the mysterious Marie de France.
