To the Trees

Poem by Victor Hugo Collection Les contemplationsThemes NaturePeriod 19th century

Trees of the forest, you know my soul!
At the whim of the envious, the crowd praises and blames;
You know me, you! – you have often seen me,
Alone in your depths, watching and dreaming.
You know it, the stone where a beetle runs,
A humble drop of water fallen from flower to flower,
A cloud, a bird, occupy me for a whole day.
Contemplation fills my heart with love.
You have seen me a hundred times, in the dark valley,
With those words that the spirit says to nature,
Questioning softly your quivering branches,
And with the same gaze pursuing at the same time,
Pensive, brow lowered, eye in the deep grass,
The study of an atom and the study of the world.
Attentive to your sounds that all speak a little,
Trees, you have seen me flee man and seek God!
Leaves that tremble at the tip of the branches,
Nests whose white feathers the wind sows far away,
Clearings, green valleys, dark and gentle deserts,
You know that I am calm and pure like you.
Like your perfumes to the sky, my worship to God soars,
And I am full of forgetfulness as you are of silence!
The hatred on my name spreads its gall in vain;
Always, – I attest to you, O woods beloved of heaven! –
I have driven far from me all bitter thought,
And my heart is still such as my mother made it!

Trees of these great woods that always shiver,
I love you, and you, ivy at the threshold of the dark springs,
Ravines where one hears the living sources filter,
Bushes that the birds pillage, joyful guests!
When I am among you, trees of these great woods,
In all that surrounds me and hides me at once,
In your solitude where I return to myself,
I feel someone great who listens to me and loves me!
So, sacred thickets where God himself appears,
Religious trees, oaks, mosses, forest,
Forest! it is in your shadow and in your mystery,
It is under your august and solitary branches,
That I want to shelter my unknown sepulcher,
And that I want to sleep when I fall asleep.

Victor Hugo

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