"The Lover"

Paul Éluard "The Lover"

She is standing on my eyelids
And her hair is in my hair,
She has the shape of my hands,
The colour of my eyes,
She is absorbed in my shadow
Like a stone within the sky.

Her eyes she keeps always open
And doesn’t let me sleep.
Her dreams in broad daylight
Make the suns evaporate,
Make me laugh, weep and laugh,
And speak, with nothing to say.

(Trans: Mary Ann Caws)

"I Had the Courage"

Guillaume Apollinaire 

"I Had the Courage"

I had the courage to look backward
The ghosts of my days
Mark my way and I mourn them
Some lie mouldering in Italian churches
Or in little woods of citron trees
Which flower and bear fruit
At the same time and in every season
Other days wept before dying in taverns
Where ardent odes became jaded
Before the eyes of a mulatto girl who inspired poetry
And the roses of electricity open once more
In the garden of my memory

(Trans. Daisy Aldan)

"The Flower that Smiles Today"

 Percy Bysshe Shelley "The flower that smiles to-day"

The flower that smiles to-day
      To-morrow dies;
All that we wish to stay,
      Tempts and then flies.
What is this world's delight? Lightning that mocks the night,
    Brief even as bright.

Virtue, how frail it is!
      Friendship how rare!
Love, how it sells poor bliss
      For proud despair!
But we, though soon they fall, Survive their joy and all
    Which ours we call.

Whilst skies are blue and bright,
      Whilst flowers are gay,
Whilst eyes that change ere night
      Make glad the day,
Whilst yet the calm hours creep, Dream thou – and from thy sleep
    Then wake to weep.