Love

This is the Good Hour when the Lamp is Lit

by Emile Verhaeren 1855–1916

Translated by Jethro Bithell (1911) · From Contemporary Belgian Poetry (1911)

Love

This is the good hour when the lamp is lit.
All is calm, and consoling, and dear,
And the silence is such that you could hear
A feather falling in it.

This is the good hour when to my chair my love will flit,
As breezes blow,
As smoke will rise,
Gentle, slow.
She says nothing at first--and I am listening;
I hear all her soul, I surprise
Its gushing and glistening,
And I kiss her eyes.

This is the good hour when the lamp is lit.
When hearts will say
How they have loved each other through the day.

And one says such simple things:
The fruit one from the garden brings;
The flower that one has seen
Opening in mosses green;

And the heart will of a sudden thrill and glow,
Remembering some faded word of love
Found in a drawer beneath a cast-off glove
In a letter of a year ago.

MLA

Verhaeren, Emile. “This is the Good Hour when the Lamp is Lit.” Translated by Jethro Bithell. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/verhaeren/133/.

Chicago

Verhaeren, Emile. “This is the Good Hour when the Lamp is Lit.” Translated by Jethro Bithell. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/verhaeren/133/.

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