Today in Literature: Stéphane Mallarmé

A great poet of the symboliste tradition, Stéphane Mallarmé was born on March 18, 1842. As nature labors from winter towards spring here in much of the Northern Hemisphere, Mallarmé’s poem “Renouveau” seems particularly suited to the season. Here is the first quatrain of the sonnet:

Le printemps maladif a chassé tristement,
L’hiver, saison de l’art serein, l’hiver lucide,
Et, dans mon être à qui le sang morne préside
L’impuissance s’étire en un long bâillement.

As sickly spring comes sadly hunting

Winter, lucid winter, season of serene art,
In my being with its dreary blood presiding,
Impotence stretches into a long yawn. (my translation)