Paul Valery Translation Of The Graveyard By The Sea Comments

This is my modern English translation of Paul Valéry's poem 'Le cimetière marin' ('The graveyard by the sea') . Valéry was buried in the seaside cemetery evoked in his best-known poem. From the vantage of the cemetery, the tombs seemed to 'support' a sea-ceiling dotted with white sails. Valéry begins and ends his poem with this image...

Excerpts from 'Le cimetière marin' ('The graveyard by the sea')
from Charmes ou poèmes (1922)
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