I Came Out of the Groves of Sleep, Poem by Emile Verhaeren

Poem by Emile Verhaeren Period 19th century

I came out of the groves of sleep,
A little sullen at having left you
Beneath their branches and their woven shadows,
Far from the joyous and morning sun.

Already the phlox and the hollyhocks are shining;
And I go off through the garden, dreaming
Of clear verses of crystal and of silver
That would ring out in the light.

Then all at once, I come back toward you,
With so much fervor and so much emotion
That it seems to me my thought
From afar, suddenly, has already crossed,
To provoke your joy and your awakening,
All the leafy and heavy shadow of sleep.

And when I rejoin you in our tepid house
That shadow and silence still possess,
My frank kisses, my clear kisses,
Ring out, like a dawn song, in the valleys of your flesh.

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-i-came-out-of-the-groves-of-sleep-emile-verhaeren/