To Whom Do You Dream

Poem by Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly Collection Last Verses (Ronsard)Period 19th century

To whom do you dream if you dream,
Bombed brow that I adore and would fain half-open,
Half-open with a kiss as piercing as a blade,
To see if it is of me—that you cause so much suffering!
O idolized brow, but closed—dark mystery,
Darker than those black eyes that make Night within me,
And whose somber fire feeds and drives to despair
The frightful love I have for you!

I have never known if you think,
If you feel—if your heart beats like another heart,
And if there is something at the bottom of your silence
Obstinately guarded, cruelly sullen!

No! I have never known if there was in your soul
A place where later a feeling might be born,
Or if you must remain a child, though a woman,
A child! not even that!—a void!

A void that seems like life!
But that makes hearts like mine dare anything;
For the inanimate being that one loves defies us!
One would burn marble in loving it!—But nothingness!!
The nothingness clothed in a body … *

* Unfinished verses, found, along with the following ones, in a very old notebook of youth.

Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly

Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.

Text published on Poésies 123: https://www.poesies123.com/en/poem-to-whom-do-you-dream-jules-barbey-d-aurevilly/