{"id":1328,"date":"2017-11-03T06:37:34","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T03:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/?p=1328"},"modified":"2020-12-05T19:32:12","modified_gmt":"2020-12-05T16:32:12","slug":"victor-hugo-on-the-massacre-of-chios-1822","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/1328\/victor-hugo-on-the-massacre-of-chios-1822\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Hugo on the Massacre of Chios (1822)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is a poem by Victor Hugo, a visitor of Ellopos sent me after reading “It Was September 11 In The Year 1822<\/a>“. The poem is called “L’ Enfant” and is included in Hugo’s “Les Orientales”, a series of poems inspired by the Greek War of Independence, first published in January 1829.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Of the forty-one poems of this collection, thirty-six were written during 1828, one of them being “L’ Enfant”. They offer a series of highly coloured tableaux depicting scenes from the eastern Mediterranean — in particular, scenes which would set off the contrast between the freedom-loving Greeks and the tyrannical Ottoman Turks.<\/p>\n

The general theme of the poems is a celebration of liberty, linking the Ancient Greeks with the modern world, freedom in politics with freedom in art.<\/p>\n

France was aroused by the Greek War of Independence. French people, especially after the massacre of Chios, sided with the Greeks, forcing the French government to stop supporting the Turks.<\/p>\n

Victor Hugo, L’ Enfant – from “Les Orientales” (1828)<\/h3>\n

Les Turcs ont pass\u00e9 l\u00e0. Tout est ruine et deuil.
\nChio, l’\u00eele des vins, n’est plus qu’un sombre \u00e9cueil,
\nChio, qu’ombrageaient les charmilles,
\nChio, qui dans les flots refl\u00e9tait ses grands bois,
\nSes coteaux, ses palais, et le soir quelquefois
\nUn choeur dansant de jeunes filles.<\/p>\n

Tout est d\u00e9sert. Mais non ; seul pr\u00e8s des murs noircis,
\nUn enfant aux yeux bleus, un enfant grec, assis,
\nCourbait sa t\u00eate humili\u00e9e ;
\nIl avait pour asile, il avait pour appui
\nUne blanche aub\u00e9pine, une fleur, comme lui
\nDans le grand ravage oubli\u00e9e.<\/p>\n

Ah ! pauvre enfant, pieds nus sur les rocs anguleux !
\nH\u00e9las ! pour essuyer les pleurs de tes yeux bleus
\nComme le ciel et comme l’onde,
\nPour que dans leur azur, de larmes orageux,
\nPasse le vif \u00e9clair de la joie et des jeux,
\nPour relever ta t\u00e8te blonde,<\/p>\n

Que veux-tu ? Bel enfant, que te faut-il donner
\nPour rattacher ga\u00eement et ga\u00eement ramener
\nEn boucles sur ta blanche \u00e9paule
\nCes cheveux, qui du fer n’ont pas subi l’affront,
\nEt qui pleurent \u00e9pars autour de ton beau front,
\nComme les feuilles sur le saule ?<\/p>\n

Qui pourrait dissiper tes chagrins n\u00e9buleux ?
\nEst-ce d’avoir ce lys, bleu comme tes yeux bleus,
\nQui d’Iran borde le puits sombre ?
\nOu le fruit du tuba, de cet arbre si grand,
\nQu’un cheval au galop met, toujours en courant,
\nCent ans \u00e0 sortir de son ombre ?<\/p>\n

Veux-tu, pour me sourire, un bel oiseau des bois,
\nQui chante avec un chant plus doux que le hautbois,
\nPlus \u00e9clatant que les cymbales ?
\nQue veux-tu ? fleur, beau fruit, ou l’oiseau merveilleux ?
\n– Ami, dit l’enfant grec, dit l’enfant aux yeux bleus,
\nJe veux de la poudre et des balles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is a poem by Victor Hugo, a visitor of Ellopos sent me after reading “It Was September 11 In The Year 1822“. The poem is called “L’ Enfant” and is included in Hugo’s “Les Orientales”, a series of poems inspired by the Greek War of Independence, first published in January 1829. Of the forty-one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_disable_autopaging":false},"categories":[9,12],"tags":[828,2986,2831,3232,3231,3230,1047,2604],"class_list":["post-1328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-modern-literature","tag-ancient-greeks","tag-chios","tag-eastern-mediterranean","tag-french-government","tag-french-people","tag-greek-war-of-independence","tag-ottoman-turks","tag-victor-hugo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}