The Dying Christian

Poem by Alphonse De Lamartine Collection Poetic MeditationsThemes Death, ReligionPeriod 19th century

What do I hear? Around me the sacred bronze resounds!
What pious crowd surrounds me, weeping?
For whom this funeral chant and this pale torch?
O death, is it your voice that strikes my ear
For the last time? What! I awaken
On the brink of the tomb!

O you! divine fire’s precious spark,
Immortal dweller of this perishable body,
Dispel these terrors: death comes to set you free!
Take your flight, O my soul! and cast off your chains.
To lay down the burden of human miseries,
Is that then to die?

Yes, time has ceased to measure my hours.
Radiant messengers of the celestial dwellings,
Into what new palaces will you bear me away?
Already, already I swim in floods of light;
Space before me widens, and the earth
Seems to flee beneath my feet!

But what do I hear? at the moment when my soul awakens,
Sighs, sobs have struck my ear?
Companions of exile, what! you weep for my death?
You weep? and already from the sacred cup
I have drunk forgetfulness of ills, and my enraptured soul
Enters the celestial port!

Alphonse de Lamartine

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-the-dying-christian-alphonse-de-lamartine/