“O pretty ship, my memory
Isn't this far enough to sea,
And the sea not fit to drink?
Haven't we drifted far and lost
From fair dawn to dreary dusk?”

—  Guillaume Apollinaire , book Alcools

Mon beau navire ô ma mémoire
Avons-nous assez navigué
Dans une onde mauvaise à boire
Avons-nous assez divagué
De la belle aube au triste soir
"La Chanson du Mal-Aimé" (Song of the Poorly Loved), line 51; translation by William Meredith, from Francis Steegmuller Apollinaire: Poet Among the Painters (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973) p. 95.
Alcools (1912)

Original

Mon beau navire ô ma mémoire Avons-nous assez navigué Dans une onde mauvaise à boire Avons-nous assez divagué De la belle aube au triste soir

Alcools (1912)

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Guillaume Apollinaire photo
Guillaume Apollinaire 28
French poet 1880–1918

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