Victor Hugo or Tennyson, but a mediocre love lyric! Still Coran has one great merit. He is thoroughly French. It is on this account rather difficult to translate his poems. They lose their principal charm in the process. The 'duvet' on the peach does not bear to be handled. There is a very pretty Rondeau of his commencing with the words 'Bergère Rose,' which seems to toss up its head with a disdainful air, like a pretty miss, every time we attempt to render it in English.
Page 208.
The Wine of Jurançon. We do not know if there is an equivalent for piquette in English; it means,—the bad wine pressed out of grapes after they have been squeezed, and water poured upon them.
Page 209.
The Poet's Apology for his Short Poems. Nicolas Martin is deeply imbued with the grand poetry of Germany. He was born at Bonn, and his mother was a German lady—a sister of the poet Karl Simrock, the learned translator into modern language of the old and magnificent Nibelungen, which Victor Hugo considers to be one of the three great epics of the world—the other two being the Mahabharatha and the Ramayana. M. Martin's landscapes are very beautiful, and his German leanings have not spoiled his French at all. It is very clear and idiomatic, and as a French critic has observed, it proves 'qu'il est bien des no'res—un vrai fils de la France.'
Page 214.
Rêverie. Auguste Lacaussade was born in the island of Bourbon about 1815. He has published a remarkable translation of Macpherson's Gaelic poems, and was for some time the literary secretary of M. Sainte-Beuve. His principal poetical works are 'Poèmes et Paysages,' and 'Les Epaves.' He lives honourably by his pen in Paris, and is or was the editor of the 'Revue Européenne.'
With the melancholy music of Millevoye he unites a force, a passion, a pathos of his own which sets him, not indeed in the first rank of the French poets, but in a position far more elevated than Millevoye's. 'Les Soleils de Juin' and 'Les Soleils de Novembre' are pieces which are often to be met with in collections of French poetry, and which fully deserve the praise they have received.
Page 215.
Sonnet.—The Two Processions. Joséphin Soulary's sonnets are among the best in the language. They are elaborated with great care. Each is a pastoral picture, or a little drama of exquisite beauty. He has been called, and deservedly, the Petrarch of France. We may simply add here that M. Joséphin Soulary holds some humble office in one of the public departments of France.
