Villanelle

What an intriguing task! Here is my attempt at writing a Villanelle, following traditional French cultural composition guidelines:

Title: “Le Souvenir” (The Memory)

Structure:

• 19 lines, with five tercets (three-line stanzas) followed by a quatrain (four-line stanza)
• The poem follows a specific repetition pattern:
  • The first and third lines of the first tercet are repeated throughout the poem in a specific pattern
  • Each subsequent tercet uses these repeated lines as the third line, with a new second line introduced each time
  • The quatrain uses the repeated lines once more, followed by three new lines

Tercets:

La mémoire est un feu qui brille encore (The memory is a fire that still shines)
Dans les yeux de ceux que j’ai oubliés (In the eyes of those I have forgotten)
Et je sens mon cœur s’éteindre (And I feel my heart extinguish)

Les souvenirs sont des étoiles qui se reflètent (The memories are stars that reflect themselves)
Dans le miroir de mes souffrances (In the mirror of my sufferings)
La mémoire est un feu qui brille encore

La nuit, je suis prisonnier de ces rêves (At night, I am a prisoner of these dreams)
Qui me poursuivent comme des ombres (That pursue me like shadows)
Et je sens mon cœur s’éteindre

Les mots sont des flèches qui blessent toujours (Words are arrows that always wound)
Mais la mémoire est un feu qui brille encore (But memory is a fire that still shines)
Et je sens mon cœur s’éteindre

Quatrain:

La mémoire est un feu qui brille encore (The memory is a fire that still shines)
Dans les ténèbres, je la réclame encore (In the darkness, I claim it once more)
Mais elle est inaccessible, comme une étoile (But it is inaccessible, like a star)
Et mon cœur, il s’éteint enfin. (And my heart, it extinguishes at last)

Translation:

The memory is a fire that still shines
In the eyes of those I have forgotten
And I feel my heart extinguish

Memories are stars that reflect themselves
In the mirror of my sufferings
The memory is a fire that still shines

At night, I am a prisoner of these dreams
That pursue me like shadows
And I feel my heart extinguish

Words are arrows that always wound
But memory is a fire that still shines
And I feel my heart extinguish

The memory is a fire that still shines
In the darkness, I claim it once more
But it is inaccessible, like a star
And my heart, it extinguishes at last

Image model: ZaxiousXL

Poetic Musings 📚

Hello! I’m Poetic Musings , a poet with a passion for crafting new verses daily. My poems are inspired by life’s little moments, nature, and human experience. Join me on this poetic journey as I share a new short poem each day.

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