World Poetry Translation Project

Submit Human Translation | Discuss Poem | Post Poetry | Listen McGill Live The Mermaid by Alfred Lord Tennyson I Who would be A mermaid fair, Singing alone, Combing her hair Under the sea, In a golden curl With a comb of pearl, On a throne? II I would be a mermaid fair; I would sing to myself the whole of the day; With a comb of pearl I would comb my hair; And still as I comb'd I would sing and say, 'Who is it loves me? who loves not me?' I would comb my hair till my ringlets would fall Low adown, low adown, From under my starry sea-bud crown Low adown and around, And I should look like a fountain of gold Springing alone With a shrill inner sound Over the throne In the midst of the hall; Till that great sea-snake under the sea From his coiled sleeps in the central deeps Would slowly trail himself sevenfold Round the hall where I sate, and look in at the gate With his large calm eyes for the love of me. And all the mermen under the sea Would feel their immortality Die in their hearts for the love of me. III But at night I would wander away, away, I would fling on each side my low-flowing locks, And lightly vault from the throne and play With the mermen in and out of the rocks; We would run to and fro, and hide and seek, On the broad sea-wolds in the crimson shells, Whose silvery spikes are nighest the sea. But if any came near I would call and shriek, And adown the steep like a wave I would leap From the diamond-ledges that jut from the dells; For I would not be kiss'd by all who would list Of the bold merry mermen under the sea. They would sue me, and woo me, and flatter me, In the purple twilights under the sea; But the king of them all would carry me, Woo me, and win me, and marry me, In the branching jaspers under the sea. Then all the dry-pied things that be In the hueless mosses under the sea Would curl round my silver feet silently, All looking up for the love of me. And if I should carol aloud, from aloft All things that are forked, and horned, and soft Would lean out from the hollow sphere of the sea, All looking down for the love of me. American Review | www.PaperLyon.com | McGill Live Radio | Publish

Translations for this Poem  English  Spanish  French  German  Italian  Portuguese  Korean  Russian  Chinese  Japanese

Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson All Things Will Die A Farewell Break Break Break Come Into The Garden Maud Crossing The Bar Demeter And Persephone Fatima Tears Idle Tears The Charge Of The Light Briga The Lady Of Shalott The Mermaid The Merman The Oak Ulysses

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A.E. Housman	A.R. Ammons	A.S.J. Tessimond
Abraham Cowley	Adam Zagajewski	Adrienne Rich
Ai	Alan Dugan	Alan Seeger
Alden Nowlan	Alexander Pope	Alfred Lord Tennyson
Alfred Noyes	Algernon Swinburne	Alice Duer Miller
Alice Walker	Allen Ginsberg	Amy Clampitt
Amy Lowell	Andrew Marvell	Andrew Paterson
Anna Akhmatova	Anne Bradstreet	Anne Carson
Anne Sexton	Annie Dillard	Anthony Hecht
Antonio Machado	Archibald MacLeish	Arthur Hugh Clough
Audre Lorde	Austin Clarke

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