Love

Les Heures claires, XVII

by Emile Verhaeren 1855–1916

Translated by Alma Strettell (1915) · From Les Heures claires

Love

That we may love each other through our eyes
Let us our glances lave, and make them clear,
Of all the thousand glances that they here
Have met, in this base world of servile lies.

The dawn is dressed in blossom and in dew,
And chequered too
With very tender light--it looks as though
Frail plumes of sun and silver, through the mist,
Glided across the garden to and fro,
And with a soft caress the mosses kissed.

Our wondrous ponds of blue
Tremble and wake with golden shimmerings;
Swift emerald flights beneath the trees dart through.
And now the light from hedge and path anew
Sweeps the damp dust, where yet the twilight clings.

MLA

Verhaeren, Emile. “Les Heures claires, XVII.” Translated by Alma Strettell. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/verhaeren/97/.

Chicago

Verhaeren, Emile. “Les Heures claires, XVII.” Translated by Alma Strettell. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/verhaeren/97/.

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