Tristesse - Alfred de Musset

Alfred de Musset was born in Paris, 1810, was well descended of an old family long settled in France; he had the literature in the blood. Musset tried his hand at medicine, law, painting and music before responding fully to his poetic vocation.

Such was the precocity of his talent in 1828 he was admitted as a peer to the literary circle of Hugo, Vigny and Saint-Beuve. He has a romantic style to write his compositions; the collection Poesies nouvelles, compressing most of Musset’s later poetry.

Tritesse is one of his masterpieces; this poem expresses strong emotions that one can feel by reading, the following table shows its lyrics both in French and English language.

Poems in french

Tristesse

J'ai perdu ma force et ma vie,
Et mes amis et ma gaieté;
J'ai perdu jusqu'à la fierté
Qui faisait croire à mon génie.

Quand j'ai connu la Vérité,
J'ai cru que c'était une amie ;
Quand je l'ai comprise et sentie,
J'en étais déjà dégoûté.

Et pourtant elle est éternelle,
Et ceux qui se sont passés d'elle
Ici-bas ont tout ignoré.

Dieu parle, il faut qu'on lui réponde.
Le seul bien qui me reste au monde
Est d'avoir quelquefois pleuré.

Alfred de Musset

Sorrow

I lost my strength and my life,
My friends and my joy;
I lost till the pride
That made my genius believable.

When I knew Truth,
I thought she was a friend;
When I understood and felt her,
I was already disgusted by her.

Although, she is eternal,
And those who did without her
On this Earth didn’t understand anything.

God is speaking, we must answer him.
The only good I still have in this world
Is to have cried sometime

Alfred de Musset