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Paul Valéry translation of “Le cimetière marin” (“The graveyard by the sea”)

This is my modern English translation of Paul Valéry's poem “Le cimetière marin” (“The graveyard by the sea”). Valéry was buried in the seaside cemetery evoked in his best-known poem. From the vantage of the cemetery, the tombs seemed to “support” a sea-ceiling dotted with white sails. Valéry begins and ends his poem with this image ...

Excerpts from “Le cimetière marin” (“The graveyard by the sea”)
from Charmes ou poèmes (1922)
by Paul Valéry
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Sailors' Souls

Solitary seafarer's soul sings sea chanteys, salty sea breeze, serenity, sea birds skim waves, suddenly, so many sailors' souls of the sunken WW II ship USS Indianapolis started singing sonorous, soaring from sea sepulchres, stirring sacrifice so sacred, such sorrow, souls still scintillating, still seaward, servicemen shipmates, solemnized, seared, sealed, in spiritual solidarity.
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