Classic Poem

VERSES ADDRESSED TO MONSIEUR ARNAULI, GOING INTO EXILE

Les oiseaux

Winter, redoubling his attacks,
The field, the roof lays bare;
The prudent birds, with love and song,
To distant climes repair
Yet, in their calm retreat, to us
Their constant thoughts shall cling:
The birds, that Winter drives away,
Will come again with Spring.

Fate into exile sends them forth;
We mourn it more than they:
The palace and the cottage walls
Have echoed with their lay
Then let them, on some tranquil shore,
To happier people sing:
The birds, that Winter drives away,
Will come again with Spring

Fast to this spot, we, hapless birds,
With envy see them fly;
Already dark and muttering clouds
O'erhang the Northern sky
Ah! happy, who, for some brief space,
Can flee on rapid wing:
The birds, that Winter drives away,
Will come again with Spring.

They'll think upon the pain we feel,
And — when the storm is past —
Will seek again the aged oak,
That braved so oft the blast
Signs of glad days — more constant then —
To our rich vale to bring,
The birds, that Winter drives away,
Will come again with Spring