The Sweet Words …, Poem by Henry Bataille

Poem by Henry Bataille Period 19th century

The sweet words that dead and gone…
They are almost like words of love,
Of sleep and of half-light…
Most of the words that one knows
Do not hold so much happiness.
One says Marthe and one says Marie,
And that soothes and refreshes. –
There are indeed many words that weep,
Those ones hardly weep at all…
Marthe is, upon waking, the step
Of mothers in the white room,
It is like a hand that comes to rest,
And the wardrobe smells of lavender…
One must murmur something
To truly console oneself, words,
Any at all if they console,
If they put to sleep and keep one warm. –
Ah! far from the best speeches,
The sweet names that Marthe and Marie,
The sweet words that dead and gone…

Henry Bataille

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-sweet-words-henry-bataille/