French Words and Phrases That Make Depression Sound More Poetic

1. ennui
2. pathetique
3. tres bleak
4. nostalgique (Thanks to my friend Ben for coining this one. My new favorite.)
5. coup d’état of the soul
6. cirque du malaise (Zee name of my blog.)
7. chagrin (Thank you, Vanessa)
8. affreux = simply awful (Again, Ben)
9. joie de noir (Y’all should follow my superfly witty friend Michael on Twitter for more of this action)

I need a #10 to round out the list. Anyone?

And in honor of depressing French poetry, I’ll leave you with a little Anaïs Nin. I found this in an old diary from my epically morose Anaïs Nin phase in my early 20s. It’s fittingly melodramatique.

…At that early age she was bemoaning the irreversibility of life. Already she was aware of how the past dies… She watched every minute of the day as she lived so that nothing would be lost. She regretted the minutes passing. She wept without knowing why, since was young and had not yet known real suffering. But without being fully aware of it, she had already experienced her greatest sorrow… She did not know it then, as most of us never know when it is that we experience the full measure of joy or sorrow. But our feelings penetrate us like a poison of undetectable nature. We have sorrows of which we do not know the origin or name.

(From Winter of Artifice)