Bridge as portal; or indeed the doorway of a bottle-shop as portal: ‘Le Pont du Nord’ was a popular chanson written by French novelist and songwriter Pierre Mac Orlan (1882-1970). Today is Day 747 of the Daily Poems, and our translator poet Timothy Adès sees the bridge in misty guise.
Le Pont du Nord by Pierre Mac Orlan
Translated by Timothy Adès
Can’t pay my rent. Two weeks behind.
My key won’t open Rue des Saules:
The landlord’s wish, he isn’t kind.
It’s snowing, snowing wretchedly
On earth, on heaven, and on me.
On my thin cheeks the snowflakes fall:
The cold bites into them, and nips
And gnaws my frozen finger-tips.
My mother told me long ago
‘Le Pont du Nord is where Adèle,
Your elder sister, went awol
And whooped it up, a ne’er-do-well,
Far from her parents’ good advice.
She lost her belt, she lost the tune,
Her life and luck and good fortune:
Drop-outs and chancers, no-one nice,
Sad song, cheap music, rotten show.’
Soon as my mam had turned it up,
My first requirement was to step
To Gypsy Rose, rue Durantin,
A palmist, doing rather well:
The skirts she wore were flounced and full.
She read my hand, my fate and all
My future and my fortune in
The doorway of a bottle-shop.
‘Before the setting of the moon
You shall be wed for evermore
At the first light of early dawn,
As soon as you’ve embarked on your…
For that’s the way that love is born.
Pay me next time. I reassure
My clients: all you hear is gain.
You’ll need to cross the Bridge of Pain
That’s also called Le Pont du Nord.’
I asked if anyone could say
Where I might find the Pont du Nord.
Some said: it’s half the world away,
Some said: it’s down the corridor.
The snow just fell without a thought.
I saw the bridge in misty guise:
No handrail, no police report,
It skimmed the river and the skies.
The wind was like a man insane:
The compass-points were all assailed.
The snow was melting into rain,
By which your bones are truly chilled.
The flesh is promised to the tomb.
Did the girl see by any chance
A sign that let her glimpse the doom
Of brides in sad mésalliance?
That’s now beyond our competence.
Pierre Mac Orlan
Translated by Timothy Adès
Sung: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S_kNyt7H3A