Listen to the Sweet Song

Poem by Paul Verlaine Collection WisdomThemes LifePeriod 19th century

Listen to the song, so sweet,
That weeps only to please you,
It is discreet, it is light:
A shiver of water over moss!

The voice was once familiar to you (and dear?)
But now it is veiled
Like a grieving widow,
Yet still as proud as she,

And in the long folds of her veil,
That quiver in the autumn breezes,
It hides and shows to the wondering heart
The truth like a star.

It says, the voice recognized,
That goodness is our life,
That of hatred and of envy
Nothing remains, once death has come.
It speaks also of the glory
Of being simple without further waiting,
And of golden weddings and the tender
Happiness of a peace without victory.

Welcome the voice that persists
In its naive epithalamium.
Come, nothing is better for the soul
Than to make a soul less sad!

It is in sorrow and passing through,
The soul that suffers without anger,
And how clear its moral is!…
Listen to the song, so wise.

Paul Verlaine

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-listen-to-the-sweet-song-paul-verlaine/