Poésies choisies de André Chénier
XII. Non, Je Ne L'aime Plus...
Ll. 17, 18. Moi qui...mon réveil. Cf. this other instance occurring in Chénier, 'Moi, l'espérance amie est bien loin de mon coeur.' As we say, 'mon coeur à moi,' for the sake of emphasis, we can also, somewhat more disconnectedly; say 'moi, mon coeur est sans espoir,' 'elle, son coeur est libre.' The thought expressed here is a reminiscence of La Fontaine, Fabl. VII. xii.
L. 20. Le nocher... Nocher (from Lat. nauclerus, Greek [Greek: nauklêros]), formerly a master's mate or a skipper, is, with nautonier, a poetic word for pilote.
L. 21. d'esclaves abondant. Abondant en esclaves would be more accordant with modern usage. La Bruyère writes, 'Si les hommes abondent de biens' (in LITTRÉ), and Haase, § 114, illustrates the construction with a quotation from a letter of La Fontaine.
L. 23. du Potose. Cerro de Potosi, a mountain of Bolivia, rich in metallic ores.
L. 28. libre de chaîne. Chaîne ought to have taken an s. But then it would not have rhymed for the eye.
L. 34, les sables brûlants. See note to p. 61 l. 19.
L. 37. nonchalant du terme. This use of nonchalant de shows Chénier to have been familiar with Montaigne, in whose writings it occurs frequently, e.g. 'Je veux... que la mort me trouve plantant mes choulx, mais nonchalant d'elle,' I. xix. Nonchalant = non + chalant, pres. part. of chaloir (Lat. calere, to be hot, hence, desire ardently), an obsolescent verb now only used impersonally in the third person singular of the present indicative: 'Il ne me chaut de cela.'
XII. NON, JE NE L'AIME PLUS...
Ll. 5-8. Tibullus, II. iv. 13 ff.
L. 9. Voilà donc comme on aime! This use of the indefinite on, at the same time familiar and poetical, occurs in Corneille, Pol. II. i: 'Est-ce là comme on aime?' And in Molière, Tart. II. iv: 'C'est donc ainsi qu'on aime?' The nuance cannot pass into English.
L. 13. Tibullus, I. v. 21.
Ll. 14, 15. Ignorés et contents... notre asile.... This abridged construction, with the past participle or the adjective before which étant is understood, is neat when not equivocal, that is, when the past participle or the adjective are clearly connected with a noun or pronoun in the principal clause (notre, in the present case). Ayer, § 278, 3.
L. 30. Le vent.... Tibul. I. v. 36. A frequent image in Latin writers. In French many are the variations on this original theme: 'Autant en emporte le vent' (= so much breath is wasted). 'Ses paroles miellées S'en étant aux vents envolées,' writes La Fontaine, Fab. X. xi, and Bertin, Am. II. i, imitating the passage of Tibullus, has 'Les vents, hélas! en tourbillons fougueux Sur l'océan ont emporté mes voeux' (a sentence, by the bye, in which it is difficult to see the logic of 'en tourbillons fougueux' and 'sur l'océan').
Ll. 33-54. Tibullus, i. 9. 17.
L. 33. Garde d'être. For garde-toi d'être. In the older language the pronoun object of reflexive verbs was frequently omitted. A trace of this ellipsis is still extant with faire followed by a reflexive verb in the infinitive (faire taire = faire se taire). Haase, § 61. We still say dépêchons, arrêtez, for dépêchons-nous, arrêtez-vous.
L. 38. J'allais couvrant. See note to p. 27, l. 29.
L. 42. Qui font jeu de..., a simplification of the phrase 'se faire un jeu de.'
L. 48. avec le lin. Mouchoir would have appeared too prosaic in those days.