#i am devastated that you can't convey how this poem needs to be CRACHÉ and i cant find a recording that does it justice

[hjemne]

look......... it's Knives..... I can't explain you just gotta trust me here

(auto-generated translation into English just doesnt convey anywhere near the correct tone. this is one of those poems where you really need to hear it read and feel the violent apathy spitting from it. but anyway AHH. it's knives)

some analysis under the cut:

It's written in the French alexandrine (12 syllables, usually split into 2 equal hemistiches of 6, with alternating 'masculine' and 'feminine' rhyming couplets). I can't quite explain the masculine Vs feminine rhyme thing to non french speakers, but it's the -ette / -ade / -iennent (t not pronounced) endings which contrast with the -vieux / -pu / -beau etc etc masculine rhymes. It just gives the poem a really gorgeous flow and structure and I'm sad that it's basically impossible to fully replicate in translation - if you want to feel the original, then maybe listen to a recording of it while looking at the English translation

the 'bed which transforms into a tombstone' is just such an incredible line I love it so so much. In the original, 'fleurdelisé' means 'decorated with the fleur-de-lis' (⚜️) which was the symbol for the french royal family. I just love the imagery around royalty and a place of rest being twisted into a grave. None of the riches of the world can save this king who cannot find joy or beauty (or any emotion, really) in the world, not even in bloodshed

ALSO the line 'ce cruel malade' (= this cruel sick [man]) is so so so interesting. In french you can use adjectives as nouns so 'malade' means sick/unwell, but also can mean a sick person. But here it reduces the entire person to their sickness, which is super fascinating because it suggests there's no possible recovery and it's something fundamental to who & what they are. AND THEN there's this 'cruel' added in front of 'malade' - normally in french the adjective goes after the noun, and putting it before (i.e. ce CRUEL malade) really emphasizes the adjective. And ahhh the image of this tyrannical sickness is so cool because we usually see sick ppl as helpless / victim to circumstance, and so someone being defined by their sickness AND cruelty is both unusual and emphasising their agency AND ALSO their lack of agency in their situation. It's SO fitting for knives because he is 'malade' in the sense that his trauma has defined and shaped everything about him, and he didn't really have any control over this 'illness'. BUT he responds to it with this cruelty and apathy that leaves him isolated from the world that he rules over and subjugates.

and also not to overthink things but 'les dames d'atour pour qui tout prince est beau' - there is NO real loyalty towards him from his inner circle. Every prince is beautiful for them, and so every prince is interchangeable. They are with him because he is a prince, and they don't actually value him beyond his royal title. The GHGs work for Knives because he's the most powerful guy, not because they actually are loyal to him or care much for his cause, with the exception of legato doing his grotesque song and dance trying to please Knives but never actually gets the approval and thanks from Knives that he craves

reading Conrad as the wiseman who can create gold (presumably via transmutation i.e. alchemy i.e. impossible) but still cannot cure the rot within Knives (l'élément corrompu)