Timeline 1800-1899: Poems of the 1870s, part 2
Hugo's "Jeanne was sentenced to dry bread"
In 1871, Victor Hugo (1802-1885) became the guardian of his grandchildren Jeanne and Georges. In the late 19th century, when children were still expected to be seen and not heard, many of Hugo’s contemporaries were shocked by the way this towering figure in the literary and political spheres indulged his grandchildren. One of his last published works was L’Art d’être grand-père (The Art of Being a Grandfather), 1877.
“Jeanne était au pain sec” (“Jeanne was sentenced to dry bread”) is one of my favorites in L’Art d’être grand-père. In the rough translation below, I’ve tried to keep the terminology of the criminal courts. (Shades of Jean Valjean!) Although it’s slightly stiff in English, I’ve also kept Hugo’s use of the French “on” (“one”) rather than translating it as “he” or “she”. It makes the looming authority figure (governess? housekeeper? butler?) rather more forbidding. Alas, I can’t do anything about the rhymes: I haven’t the poetic talent to make them work in an English translation. So we lose some of the fun, for example when Hugo rhymes forfeiture (penalty) with confiture (jam). The French original is here (search “pain sec”).
Jeanne was sentenced to dry bread in a dark room
For some crime or other; and, failing in my duty,
I went to see the condemned one while she was still suffering the penalty.
And against the rules, I slipped her, in the dark,
A pot of jam. All those in whom, in my city-state,
The good of society reposes,
Became indignant, and Jeanne said, in a gentle voice:
“I won’t touch my nose with my thumb;
I won’t let myself be scratched any more by the kitten.”
But one said indignantly: “This child knows you;
She knows just where you’re weak and lax.
She sees you always laughing when one gets upset.
No exercise of authority is possible. Every moment
The system is troubled by you; power is relaxed;
No moral order. The child has nothing to arrest her.
You demolish it all.” – And I lowered my head,
And I said: “I have no answer for that;
I was wrong. Yes, it’s with such indulgences as these
That one leads the people to their doom.
Let me be sentenced to dry bread.” “You deserve it, certainly,
And one will impose the penalty.” – Then Jeanne, in her dark corner,
Said to me very quietly, raising her beautiful eyes,
Full of the authority of gentle creatures:
“All right then: me, I’ll bring you some jam.”
This article by Lucy Hamilton on Timothy Adès’s translation of L’Art d’etre grand-pere includes excerpts from more of the poems in that volume.
Coming next (6/3/2026): one more poem from the 1870s.