Come, Death, to My Aid Come

Poem by Jean-Antoine De Baïf Period 16th century

Come, death, to my aid come;
O death, help, I beg you.
– I hear you, I come, what do you want?
– O death, I am all on fire;
I await from you healing.
– And who has set you all on fire?
– The child who bears the torch.
– What can I do for you?
– Make me die, I beg you.
– You die every day.
– No, make it so that I have felt it.
– Lover, ask your heart.
– My heart, would you be quite dead
– Dead at once, suddenly alive.
– O poor heart, what are you saying?
Does the human who dies be reborn?
– I alone am born by dying,
As does the phoenix
Within the reborn fire.

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-come-death-to-my-aid-come-jean-antoine-de-baif/