Dawn, Shadow, Evening, Space and the Stars, Poem by Emile Verhaeren

Poem by Emile Verhaeren Period 19th century

Dawn, shadow, evening, space and the stars;
What night conceals or shows between its veils,
Mingles with the fervor of our exalted being.
Those who live by love live by eternity.

It matters not that their reason adheres or mocks
And stretches out to them, standing on its high walls,
Along the quays and harbors its clear torches;
They are the travelers from beyond the sea.

They watch the day gleam from shore to shore,
Far off, farther than the ocean and its black waves;
Fixed certainty and trembling hope
For their ardent gazes have the same face.

Happy and clear, they believe, with avidity;
Their soul is the deep and sudden clarity
With which they burn the brow of the haughtiest problems;
And to know the world, they search only themselves.

They go along distant paths, chosen by themselves,
Living on the truths their eyes contain,
Simple and naked, deep and gentle as the dawn;
And for them alone, the paradises still sing.

Emile Verhaeren

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

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