Terror

Poem by Guy De Maupassant Period 19th century

That evening I had read some author for a very long time.
It was well past midnight, and suddenly I was afraid.
Afraid of what? I do not know, but a horrible fear.
I understood, panting and trembling with fright,
That something terrible was about to happen…
Then it seemed to me I felt behind me
Someone standing upright, whose face
Laughed an atrocious laugh, motionless and tense:
And yet I heard nothing. O torture!
To feel that he was stooping to touch my hair,
And that he was about to place his hand upon my shoulder,
And that I would die at the sound of his voice!…
He kept leaning toward me, always closer;
And I, for my eternal salvation, would not have
Made a single movement or turned my head…
Like birds battered by the storm,
My thoughts whirled as if crazed with horror.
A sweat of death chilled my every limb,
And I heard no other sound in my room
Than that of my teeth chattering with terror.

Suddenly there came a crack; mad with fright,
Having let out the most terrible howl
That ever came from a living breast,
I fell on my back, stiff and motionless.

Guy de Maupassant

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-terror-guy-de-maupassant/