"Chant d'Automne" de Paul Verlaine

This sad and melancholic, yet wonderful, short poem is also charged with historic meaning. You might be familiar with the first 2 verses which were used by General de Gaulle, chief of the resistance and future president of the liberated France, in the days and hours preceding the launch of D-day.

1- Poem

(the format of the text is from Verlaine)
Les sanglots longs
Des violons
De l’automne
Blessent mon cœur
D’une langueur
Monotone.

Tout suffocant
Et blême, quand
Sonne l’heure,
Je me souviens
Des jours anciens
Et je pleure;

Et je m’en vais
Au vent mauvais
Qui m’emporte
Deçà, delà,
Pareil à la
Feuille morte.

2- Translation

The long laments
Of autumn's
Violins
Wound my heart
With a monotone
Fatigue.

All suffocating
And pale, when
The hour chimes,
I remember
The old days
And I cry;

And I go
With the nasty wind
That is carrying me
Here and there
Similar to the
Falling leaf.

Arthur Rimbaud - by Henri Fantin Latour