La Poesie: Part Deux

A few months ago, I posted on a French poem that encountered during an AP French Institute I attended. Here's another I will be teaching in the next few weeks. It's pretty dark, but... Demain, dès l'aube... Tomorrow, at dawn Victor Hugo Demain, dès l'aube, à l'heure où blanchit la campagne, Tomorrow, at dawn, when the countryside is white, Je partirai. Vois-tu, je sais que tu m'attends. I will leave. You see, I know you are waiting for me. J'irai par la forêt, j'irai par la montagne. I will go through the forest, the the mountains. Je ne puis demeurer loin de toi plus longtemps. I am unable to live far from you for very long. Je marcherai les yeux fixés sur mes pensées, I will walk with my eyes fixed on my thoughts, Sans rien voir au dehors, sans entendre aucun bruit, Without seeing anything outside, without hearing a sound, Seul, inconnu, le dos courbé, les mains croisées, Alone, unknown, a bent back, crossed hands, Triste, et le jour pour moi sera comme la nuit. Sad, and day will be for me as night. Je ne regarderai ni l'or du soir qui tombe, I will watch neither the gold of the night which falls, Ni les voiles au loin descendant vers Harfleur, Nor the sails afar going towards Harfleur, Et quand j'arriverai, je mettrai sur ta tombe And when I arrive, I will put on your tomb Un bouquet de houx vert et de bruyère en fleur. A bouquet of green holly and flowery heath. Supposedly, this poem was written to his daughter who had committed suicide by jumping from a building.