To This Earth Where We Fold, Poem by Victor Hugo

XXX

To this earth, where we fold
Our tent at the decline of day,
Do not ask for joy.
Be content with love!

Except for it, all fades.
Life is a dark place
Where each thing that passes
Sketches man for God.

Man is the tree whose sap
Fails before it blooms.
His fate never ends
Except on the side of misfortune.

All seek joy together;
The mind laughs at whatever comes;
Each extends his trembling hand
Toward some radiant object.

But toward every soul, humble or proud,
Misfortune climbs with heavy steps,
Like a specter with feet of stone;
The rest always floats!

Everything fails us, except pain!
Happiness, for man in tears,
Is but a vain figure
Of things that are elsewhere.

Hope is the uncertain dawn;
On our serious goal

It is the distant gilding
Of a mysterious ray.

It is the reflection, mist or flame,
That in their eternal calm
Pour from above onto our soul
The felicities of heaven.

They are the white visions
That, to our cursed eyes,
Come through the branches
Of the trees of paradise!

It is the shadow that on our shores
Those charming trees cast,
Whose soul hears in its dreams
The vague shiverings!

This reflection of countless goods,
We call it happiness;
And we want to seize the shadow
When the thing is with the Lord!

Go, no one rises so high;
On earth we must remain;
We smile at what we dream,
But what we have makes us weep.

Since a God bleeds on Calvary,
Let us not complain, believe me.
Let us suffer! it is the severe law.
Let us love! it is the gentle law.

Let us love! let us be two! The wise man
Is not alone in his vessel.
Two eyes make the face;
Two wings make the bird.

Let us be two! — Everything invites us
To love each other until evening.
Let us have but one life between two!
Let us have but one hope between two!

In this world of lies,
I will love my sorrows,
If my dreams are your dreams,
If my tears are your tears!
May 20, 1838.

Victor Hugo

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-to-this-earth-where-we-fold-victor-hugo/