Tombstone


I fondly nursed an opening rose,
And view'd its beauties every day;
But ah! a withering storm arose
And swept my lovely flower away.

The waters deep, the waters dark,
Reflect the seekers, hide the sought,
Whether in water or in air to drown.
Between them curls the silver spark,
Barbed, baited, waiting, of a thought--
Which in the world is upside down,
The fish hook or the question mark?

Oh thou degenerate child of the great and glorious mother,
Who with the Romans' strong might couplest the Tyrians' deceit!
But those ever governed with vigor the earth they had conquered,--
These instructed the world that they with cunning had won.
Say! what renown does history grant thee? Thou, Roman-like, gained'st
That with the steel, which with gold, Tyrian-like, then thou didst rule!

Je t'écris de dessous la tente
Tandis que meurt ce jour d'été
Où floraison éblouissante
Dans le ciel à peine bleuté
Une canonnade éclatante
Se fane avant d'avoir été

O you,
Who came upon me once
Stretched under apple-trees just after bathing,
Why did you not strangle me before speaking
Rather than fill me with the wild white honey of your words
And then leave me to the mercy
Of the forest bees?

Blow high, blow low!
No longer borrow
Care of tomorrow:
Take joy of life, and let care go!

Here's one in whom Nature feared--faint at such vying -
Eclipse while he lived, and decease at his dying.

Of your fate
Fast asleep
On the bed you made
Dream away
Wake up late

Water was in the west, sand shoals in the east
In the north dream built illuminated abode
In the south countless roses bloomed
My life was accumulated with nasty sins
Over my head floats dark clouds of Shraban
Enchanting emotions wipe out dusts of life.

Tristans, ges no.n auretz de me,
qu'eu m'en vau, chaitius, no sai on,
De chantar me gic e.m recre
e de joi e d'amor m'escon.