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After the winds, after the sad storm,
After the winter, which with torrents of water
Had drowned the oxen’s plowing,
Here come the new gentle breezes
Of beautiful spring: already within their banks
The clear streams begin to narrow.
My God, for me this season does not arrive.
The sad winter lasts always for me.
So well does Love deprive me of my spring!
Though all laughs, nothing gay do I see:
Though with tears the serene sky wipes away,
To put an end to my tears I must not.
Without end my eyes pour their sad rain,
And when each shows himself more joyful,
It is when more strongly, more sadly, I am troubled.
Under the freshness of the delightful woods
Venus the gay, and the Graces her companions,
And her Loves make a graceful dance.
The little Satyrs lurking from the mountains,
Run after: the gentle shepherd
With his flute rejoices the fields.
In the groves on the green sapling
One hears singing in its wild chatter
And lamenting Ityl the Daulian bird.
The sky laughs at it, the meadow and the grove:
And it seems still the Naiad in its waves
Dancing and skipping to the sweet song.
My songs more gay are sad sobs,
And my dance is of a thousand steps the loss,
All my pleasures a thousand vain and foolish hopes:
The sad black is my greenest color:
Of infinite evils I feel the renewal,
Of goods I lose every half-open flower.
Nothing of spring do I have, except the beauty,
(Thus my winter, and spring of Madame)
From which I always receive new winter.
Sweet is her spring: but burning is the flame,
Of the hot winter, which freezes my heart,
By counterblow martyring my soul.
To your beauty the vigor of spring
I compare, and the flowers to your graces,
To the season of your age the flower.
But in beauty you surpass the spring:
To its sweetness yield your cruelty:
Your cruelty with sweetness you efface.
When attracting me with sweet familiarity
You constrain me to feel rebellious toward you,
And to test me against my loyalty
By your refusal ungratefully cruel.
Jean-Antoine de Baïf
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-after-the-winds-after-the-sad-storm-jean-antoine-de-baif/