The Twentieth of April, Lying on the Grass

Poem by Pierre De Ronsard Collection Second Book of LovesPeriod 16th century

The twentieth of April, lying on the tender grass,
I saw, it seemed to me, asleep, a roebuck,
That here, then there, walked where his will led him,
Treading the lovely flowers with many a slender leg.

One horn and yet another, newly grown,
Swelled his small brow, small but full of pride;
Like a Sun his fair eye shone through the meadows,
And a necklace hung upon his soft throat.

As soon as I saw him, I wanted to run after him,
And he who noticed me took his course into the woods,
Where, mocking me, he would not wait for me.

But following his track, I did not notice
A snare among the flowers, which bound my steps,
And wanting to take another I took myself.

Pierre de Ronsard

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

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