POEMS
By
MAURICE MAETERLINCK
—Done into English Verse—
by BERNARD MIALL
Methuen & Co. Ltd.
36 Essex Street W.C.
London
1915
Translator's Preface
I
Once in a generation an author surpasses the bounds of nationality.Of such cosmopolitan artists Maurice Maeterlinck is perhaps the mostshining example. Twenty years ago I was vainly endeavouring to interestEnglish publishers in his plays. To-day I am asked to produce a versionof one of his earlier and less familiar works, because the time isapproaching for that monument to his fame which so few writers enjoyin their lifetime—namely, the complete edition. He is not a Belgianwriter merely or chiefly; above all he is an English, an Americanauthor. His readers in England and the United States far outnumberthose who read the original French. His books are published in Englandand America almost as soon as they appear in France and Belgium, andin at least one case the English publication was the earlier. More andmore do his lovers demand every word that his pen has formed. Sooner orlater, therefore, it was inevitable that these "Poems" should appear intranslation.
II
The poems contained in this volume form part of a movement longdefunct—the Belgian Symbolist movement, an offshoot of that Belgianrenascence which produced so remarkable a body of great and noblepoetry. I cannot say, however, that perusal of the other poets ofthe period will assist the reader to appreciate the volume in hand.Eekhoud, Elskamp, Gilkin, Rodenbach, Verhaeren—none of these wroteverse which could possibly be confounded with that of Maeterlinck;twenty years ago the latter was no less original than he is to-day.
Many poets of the late nineteenth century were, without beingsymbolists, affected by the Symbolist movement—a movement very looselynamed, since the actual symbolists connected with it could be countedon the fingers of one hand. More particularly were they influenced bythe tendency to put music before matter, beauty before sense, which isexpressed by the so familiar lines of Verlaine:
De la musique avant toute chose,
Et pour cela préfère l'Impair,
Plus vague et plus soluble dans l'air,
Sans rien en lui qui pèse ou pose...
De la musique encor et toujours!
But musical as Maeterlinck's verses are, and rich in sheer beauty,we are very seldom in doubt as to what the poet says, however littlewe may in some cases understand what he means. His statements areconcrete and lucid; it is the inner meaning, the soul of his verse,that sometimes threatens to elude us. Had this volume been cast uponthe late Victorian world this preface would perhaps have been longer.But I cannot believe that these poems will present any difficultiesto a generation which has degustated such phenomena as Cubism and itskindred manifestations.
III
It is safe to assert that the writer of these poems had read hisVerlaine, his Rimbaud, his Mallarmé, and his Baudelaire, and ofEnglish-speaking poets Emerson, Poe, perhaps Rossetti, and above allWhitman. But he is no disciple; and his essential originality, and thekeynote of his aesthetics, is a system of symbolism.
Now here at once we are on dangerous ground. When a poet makes use ofa symbol it is because that symbol enables him to say something thathe cannot say so well, or so beautifully, or perhaps at all, in plainlanguage. He is a rash man, therefore, who will attempt to elucidateanother's symbolism. However, I have already been