Stéphane Mallarme's Apparition poem: an experiment in French & English poetic prompting
By Cayla Catz
@Hephzibah had a triptych of images using a poem as a prompt. @DavidP showed me an image that resulted from a Latin poem. He might have it here but I'm not sure where. For the Courtesan Ch'ing Lin @Hephzibah https://budgetpixel.com/p/11693 French/English Language Poem prompt experiment parameters So I thought I'd do this experiment the same seed with the French poem and the English translated version. Apparition (1884) by Stéphane Mallarme (1842-1898) , French poet and critic. Translated by Wilfrid Thorley . Wilfrid Charles Thorley (1878-1963),English poet, children's author, and translator. Randomly chosen Seed: 20241 Models are limited to those which show seeds. (One generated pair per AI model company) The prompt is just the poem, nothing else. Either in French or English https://poets.org/poem/apparition-1 French: La lune s’attristait. Des séraphins en pleurs Rêvant, l’archet aux doigts, dans le calme des fleurs Vaporeuses, tiraient de mourantes violes De blancs sanglots glissant sur l’azur des corolles. —C’était le jour béni de ton premier baiser. Ma songerie aimant à me martyriser S’enivrait savamment du parfum de tristesse Que même sans regret et sans déboire laisse La cueillaison d’un Rêve au cœur qui l’a cueilli. J’errais donc, l’œil rivé sur le pavé vieilli, Quand avec du soleil aux cheveux, dans la rue Et dans le soir, tu m’es en riant apparue Et j’ai cru voir la fée au chapeau de clarté Qui jadis sur mes beaux sommeils d’enfant gâté Passait, laissant toujours de ses mains mal fermées Neiger de blancs bouquets d’étoiles parfumées. English: The moon grew sad, and weeping seraphim, Musing among the vaporous flowers aswim, With slow bows from the sobbing viols drew White tears that sank in their corónals blue. It was the blesséd day of your first kiss. My reverie, eager with new miseries, Was all a-swoon with perfume of shy grief That leaves the heart to gather its own sheaf, And frets not, nor yet sickens of its prize. I wandered, and the worn way held my eyes When in the street I saw your sun-girt hair And you all smiling in the twilit air. I took you for that elf who, crowned with beams, Once passed before me in my childish dreams, And shed white posies of sweet-smelling flow’rs Star-like for tiny hands in snowy show’rs. Seed: 20241 : Model P-image: French followed by English Seed: 20241 : Model Minimax: French followed by English Seed: 20241 : Model Z-Image Turbo: French followed by English z got stuck , darn. I will have to add this one later. It worked for me earlier so I should be able to have for this experiment Seed: 20241 : Model Ideogram v3 Turbo: French followed by English Seed: 20241 : Model Hidream i1 Full : French followed by English Seed: 20241 : Model Flux 2 Pro : French followed by English Seed: 20241 : Model Wan 2.6 : French followed by English Seed: 20241 : Model Hunyuan Image 3 : French followed by English Conclusions: I'll leave that up to you. You tell me what you think of the difference in the French and English as interpreted by the prompt into an image