War and Poetry

War and Poetry

Two lines from a poem by French poet Paul Verlaine served as a signal for the allied invasion of Normandy in World War II. The poem is Chanson d'Automne, and the lines are:

Les Sanglots longues Des violons de l'automne

Blessent mon coeur D'une langueur monotone.

which translates literally as:

The long sobs Of autumn's violins

Wound my heart with a monotonous languor.

The French Underground, for weeks before the invasion, would intersperse a reading of the first line in radio and news weather broadcasts. When the invasion was imminent, the second line followed. And that was the signal for members of the Underground to go into action to sabotage the German war machine.

Here's a poetic translation of the entire poem:

AUTUMN SONG

The murmurings Of autumn's strings Bemoan

The languid sighs My heart becries Alone.

In breathless gloom Toward pending doom I creep

And fondly gaze On former days And weep.

And we are borne By ill winds' scorn To fly

Hither and brief The withered leaf And I.