Do You Remember?

Poem by Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly Collection PoussièresPeriod 19th century

Do you remember the evening, when near the open window
Of a drawing room full of merry frolic,
You were not yet sixteen… were you?… perhaps…
Beneath the fallen curtain, we spoke to each other in whispers?
It was not love that my lips expressed to you,
My heart was too old, too frozen, too haughty
To speak to your heart; but, a fierce prophet,
I foretold your destiny.

And you, you listened to me, leaning on the bar;
You showed me the nape of your neck, hiding your forehead,
And you remained silent at the cruel idea
Of that first love which, having possessed you,

Will become my last affront!
Night, sky, garden, flowerbeds, outside everything was dark,
And you looked into that blackness.
But your sixteen-year-old heart still had more shadow
And there, as outside, you could see nothing!

But I, I saw it there! My eyes pierced the veil
That hid your future from you,
And I saw in the distance rise the dreadful star
Of that first love which must come for you!
I said to you then: “He will soon appear
The one who will take possession of your days by authority!
But I, who do not want to see you submit to a master,
I will have disappeared forever!”

It is done… I have now left your life
Without telling you the farewell one says when one leaves;
Silently I carry away my madness…
To be loved by you, I had come too late.
You did not betray me. I have nothing to say to you…
What was between us is Fate.
No illusion did you have over me the empire,
Except that of your pride!

Had I exalted it enough
To resist your future conqueror?
Did I believe I had planted it
Deep enough in your too weak heart?
I had thus set your soul too high.
In you, pride? no! not even arrogance!
Could you be more than a woman?
Arms closed around you are for me your coffin.
And if, before my eyes, one of these evenings perhaps,
You pass, drawing all hearts in your wake,
Do not lower yours;? for you made me know
That kind of contempt which does not even see!…

Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly

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

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