Les Antiquitez de Rome / Ruines of Rome

A collection of 32 sonnets published by Joachim du Bellay probably written in 1554. The poet had travelled to Rome as one of the secretaries of Cardinal Du Bellay and these verses were inspired by his thoughts on seeing the ruins of ancient Rome that were spread around the Renaissance city. He wrote in French having previously published Défense et Illustration de la langue française in which he admitted that the French language at the time was too poor to write higher forms of poetry but he envisaged an enrichment of the language and I presume he wrote in French rather than Latin to aid this process. I have to confess I read a modern English translation as well as a translation by Edmund Spenser published in 1591.

The sonnets are vivid show more and imaginative and in some respects look towards the Romantic poetry of the nineteenth century. The sequence opens with the poet standing on the ruins and imagining he is shouting down to the people that inhabited ancient Rome; he wants to tell them of the devotion he has for their civilisation, but is also wary of the fury he might evoke. This sets the tone for the sequence because the poet wishes to celebrate the greatness of Rome, but he also fully aware of how that civilisation tore itself to pieces. Themes of time passing, of a society that became addicted to leisure, one that even threatened the gods themselves are played out in some wonderful imagery. It is quite pagan in feel and devoid of any Christian censure and in one of the sonnets there is more than a hint that Peter’s successor (the pope) took away the power of the peoples consuls to the cities detriment.

An example from the modern translation:
If that blind fury that engenders wars,
Fails to rouse the creatures of a kind,
Whether swift bird aloft or fleeting hind,
Whether equipped with scales or sharpened claws,
What ardent Fury in her pincers’ jaws
Gripped your hearts, so poisoned the mind,
That intent on mutual cruelty, we find,
Into your own entrails your own blade bores?
Was this, Romans, your harsh destiny,
Or some old sin, with discordant mutiny,
Working on you its eternal vengeance?
The gods denying, in just indignation,
Your walls, bloodied by that ancient instance
Of fraternal strife, a sure foundation.

And here is The same verse as translated by Edmund Spenser

If the blinde Furie, which warres breedeth oft,

Wonts not t’ enrage the hearts of equall beasts,

Whether they fare on foote, or flie aloft,
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Or armed be with clawes, or scalie creasts,

What fell Erynnis, with hot burning tongs,

Did grype your hearts, with noysome rage imbew’d,

That, each to other working cruell wrongs,

Your blades in your owne bowels you embrew’d?
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Was this, ye Romanes, your hard destinie?

Or some old sinne, whose unappeased guilt

Powr’d vengeance forth on you eternallie?

Or brothers blood, the which at first was spilt

Upon your walls, that God might not endure
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Upon the same to set foundation sure?


On a technical note it will be noticed that the rhyming scheme differs between the two translations. The Modern translation by A S Kline recreates the Petrachan scheme that was used by Du Bellay, Spenser however used his own scheme ending each sonnet with a rhyming couplet.

Du Bellay cannot help sounding his own trumpet in the final sonnet claiming he is the first to write in praise of Rome in the french language and Spenser tacks on an extra sonnet to his translation: titled L’Envoy, in which he adds his own admiration for the poems and Du Bellay. I think I would add my voice in favour of these splendid sonnets which I thoroughly enjoyed. A four star read. show less

De 1553 à 1557, du Bellay vécut à Rome, pour y remplir la fonction de secrétaire auprès de son oncle le cardinal Jean du Bellay. Ce séjour au pays d'Horace et de Pétrarque le séduisit d'abord, puis le déprima profondément. D'une santé fragile, isolé par la surdité dont il était atteint, et surtout nostalgique de son Anjou natal, il ne put apprécier la beauté de Rome sans amertume : le spectacle des ruines le plongea dans une sombre méditation sur le déclin de toute chose, qui lui inspira le recueil les Antiquités de Rome, publié à son retour en France, en 1558, sous le titre complet de : le Premier Livre des Antiquités de Rome, contenant une description générale de sa grandeur et comme une déploration de sa ruine.