Cloister Sketch (II), Poem by Emile Verhaeren

Poem by Emile Verhaeren Period 19th century

At full voice — noon exalting itself outdoors
And the fields at rest — the none is being sung,
In a swaying of repeated phrases
And haunting, like a recalling of great remorse.

And little by little the chants take such flights,
The antiphons are borne on such wings
Through the hurricane of exalted notes,
That the stained-glass windows tremble, deep in the corridors.

The day falls in clear white sheets through the windows;
One would say great priests’ cloaks were hanging
From nails of sunlight. But suddenly, slowly,

The monks in the choir hush their melodies
And, during the rest between two psalmodies,
A distant lowing comes from the countryside.

Emile Verhaeren

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-cloister-sketch-ii-emile-verhaeren/