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The night was very black and the forest very dark.
Hermann beside me seemed to me a shadow.
Our horses galloped. Into God’s keeping!
The clouds in the sky looked like marble.
The stars flew through the branches of the trees
Like a swarm of birds of fire.
I am full of regrets. Broken by suffering,
Hermann’s deep mind is empty of hope.
I am full of regrets. O my loves, sleep!
Now, while crossing these green solitudes,
Hermann said to me: “I dream of the half-open tombs;”
And I said to him: “I think of the closed tombs.”
He looks ahead: I look behind,
Our horses galloped across the clearing;
The wind brought us distant angelus;
He said: “I dream of those whom existence afflicts,
Of those who are, of those who live.” — I said to him,
“I think of those who are no more!”
The fountains sang. What did the fountains say?
The oaks murmured. What did the oaks murmur?
The bushes whispered like old friends.
Hermann said to me: “The living never slumber.
At this moment, eyes weep, other eyes keep watch.”
And I said to him: “Alas! others are asleep!”
Hermann then resumed: “Misfortune is life.
The dead no longer suffer. They are happy! I envy
Their grave where grass grows, where the woods shed their leaves.
For the night caresses them with its gentle flames;
For the radiant sky calms all souls
In all the tombs at once!”
And I said to him: “Be silent! respect the dark mystery!
The dead lie stretched beneath our feet in the earth.
The dead are the hearts that once loved you,
It is your expired angel! it is your father and your mother!
Let us not sadden them with bitter irony.
As through a dream they hear our voices.”
Victor Hugo
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-what-the-two-horsemen-were-dreaming-of-victor-hugo/