In the Time When I Had Long Suffered

Poem by Emile Verhaeren Period 19th century

In the time when I had long suffered,
When the hours were snares to me,
You appeared to me as the welcoming light
That shines in the windows, in winter,
At the depths of evening, upon the snow.

Your hospitable soul’s clarity
Brushed, without wounding it, my heart,
Like a hand of tranquil warmth.

Then came the good confidence,
And candor, and tenderness, and the union
At last of our two friendly hands,
One evening of clear understanding and gentle calm.

Since then, although summer has followed the frost,
In ourselves, and under the sky,
Whose eternalized flames
Deck with gold all the paths of our thoughts,
And although love has become the immense flower
Born of the proud desire
That ceaselessly, to grow even greater,
Begins again in our heart,
I still gaze at the little light
That was sweet to me, the first.

Emile Verhaeren

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-in-the-time-when-i-had-long-suffered-emile-verhaeren/