Love

I See You Still. I Softly Dressed in a Summer Dress

by Paul Verlaine 1844–1896

Translated by Gertrude Hall (1895) · From Romances sans paroles (1874)

Love

I see you still! Dressed in a summer dress,
Yellow and white, bestrewn with curtain-flowers;
But you had lost the glistening laughingness
Of our delirious former loving hours.

The eldest daughter and the little wife
Spoke plainly in your bearing's least detail,--
Already 'twas, alas! our altered life
That stared me from behind your dotted veil.

Forgiven be! And with no little pride
I treasure up,--and you, no doubt, see why,--
Remembrance of the lightning to one side
That used to flash from your indignant eye!

✦ ✦ ✦

Birds in the Night, part VI

MLA

Verlaine, Paul. “I See You Still. I Softly Dressed in a Summer Dress.” Translated by Gertrude Hall. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/verlaine/25/.

Chicago

Verlaine, Paul. “I See You Still. I Softly Dressed in a Summer Dress.” Translated by Gertrude Hall. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/verlaine/25/.

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