L'Année terrible

L'Année terrible is a series of poems written by Victor Hugo and published in 1872. They deal with the Franco-Prussian War, the trauma of losing his son Charles, and with the Paris Commune. Covering the period from August 1870 to July 1871, a group of poems encapsulates each month, blending Hugo's anguish over personal tragedies with his despair at the predicament of France. J'entreprends de conter l'année épouvantable, Et voilà que j'hésite, accoudé sur ma table. Faut-il aller plus loin ? dois-je continuer ? France ! ô deuil ! voir un astre aux cieux diminuer ! Je sens l'ascension lugubre de la honte. Morne angoisse ! un fléau descend, un autre monte. N'importe. Poursuivons. L'histoire en a besoin. Ce siècle est à la barre et je suis son témoin. I take up pen to tell of the terrible year, And suddenly I stop, elbows on my desk. Must I proceed? must I go on? France! what horror! to see a star fade in the heavens! I feel the lugubrious ascent of disgrace. Dismal anguish! one curse falls, a new one rises. No matter. Let's continue. History needs this. The century is in the dock and I am his witness. Dedicated to the people of Paris, the cycle begins with the Battle of Sedan, which resulted in the capture and exile of Napoleon III and Hugo's triumphant return to Paris on 5 September 1870—only to see the city besieged by Bismarck's forces on the 19th of the same month. The siege ended more than four months later, on 28 January 1871, by which time Paris was devastated. France lost Alsace-Lorraine to Prussia. On 13 March 1871, the day before he intended to return to Paris, Hugo was attending a farewell dinner for friends at a restaurant in Bordeaux when a carriage bearing his son Charles arrived. When the carriage door was opened, his son was found dead of a stroke and covered with blood from his mouth and nose. (The death of Charles's wife shortly afterwards would result in Victor becoming the guardian of their two children.) The funeral took place at Père Lachaise Cemetery on 18 March, the same day that two generals were murdered, marking the beginnings of an insurrection.