But What! Already the Heavens Agree to Weep

Poem by Théodore Agrippa D'Aubigné Period 16th century

… But what! already the Heavens agree to weep,
The sun grows dark, a bitter dew
Comes from drops of gall to enamor the earth,
With a black crepe the moon, disguised, laments,
And all for my love wishes to honor my death.

At the height of noon, the stars’ fires,
Seeing that the sun has lost its light,
Cast their pitiful rays upon my demise,
And with woeful aspects relieve my misery.
The hymn of my death is sung by the Heavens.

The angels have felt my burning passions,
Leave the beloved Heavens, their indescribable pleasure,
They suffer, afflicted by my afflictions,
I see them with my eyes though they are invisible,
I am not bewitched by sweet fictions.

Everything groans, everything complains, and my evil is so strong
That it moves flowers, hills, woods and strange rocks,
Tigers, lions and bears and the waters and their port,
Nymphs, the winds, the heavens, the stars and the angels.
You are far from pity and farther from my death,

Harder than the rocks, the coasts and the sea,
More haughty than the air, than the heavens and the angels,
More cruel than all that I can name,
Tigers, bears and lions, serpents, strange monsters,
You laugh as you kill me and I die for loving.

Théodore Agrippa d’Aubigné

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

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