Le cheval
Mes durs rêves formels sauront te chevaucher,
Mon destin au char d’or sera ton beau cocher
Qui pour rênes tiendra tendus à frénésie,
Mes vers, les parangons de toute poésie.
 

Het paard
Mijn harde vormelijke dromen zullen je weten te berijden,
Mijn bestemming: met de gouden karos jouw knappe voerman zijn, met als teugels mijn tot razernij opgespannen verzen, toonbeelden van alle poëzie.

of:
Met vormvereisten zal ik je temmen

je naar Apollo's zonnewagen brengen.

Door je als een waanzinnige in te tomen,

begint in mijn verzen poëzie te stromen.

Horse

My hard, formal dreams will know just how to ride you,
My destiny in a gold chariot will be your handsome driver,
Who will take for reins, drawn in tight frenzy,
My verses, paragons of all poetry.

Lauren Shakely

This sounds like a statement on the art and craft of poetry ... See below Apollinaire's his own explicatory note, which however obscures as much as it clarifies.

 

Some tensions : The 'gold chariot' does refer to Apollo, the God of the Muses and bringer of light (Phoebus Apollo, aka Helios, the Sun). His chariot however is pulled by four white horses, not by Pegasus.

Pegasus is the Poet's Horse: His hooves touched Mount Helicon (or Parnassus) where Muses dwell, and Hippocrene (litt: Horse's Fountain) sprung. The water from that well is the source of poetic inspiration. The young hero Bellerophon got the idea/hint to use a gold bridle to bridle the untamable Pegasus, while sleeping in the temple of Athena.
In short: both Pegasus and Apollo are closely connected to Art and Poetry (the Muses). Their myths were still quite common pictorial themes in Apollinaire's days, e.g. the symbolist etcher/painter Odilon Redon (link opens two pictures of Pegasus).

The first to ride Pegasus was Bellerophon when he rode forth to attack the Chimera. There are a great many chimeras today, and before going to battle the one most inimical to poetry, it might be well to bridle Pegasus, even put a tight harness on him. You know what I mean.

De eerste die Pegasus besteeg was Bellerophon bij zijn aanval op de Chimaera. Ook vandaag zijn er nog chimaeres en alvorens een van hen te gaan bestrijden, nl. de grootste vijand van de poëzie, lijkt het verstandig om Pegasus te breidelen en zelfs in te spannen. U begrijpt wel wat ik bedoel.