The darkness is lustral and the dawn iridescent.
From the lofty branch whence a bird flies, the
dew-drops fall.
A lucid and frail purity adorns a morning so
bright that prisms seem to gleam in the air. A
spring babbles; a noise of wings is heard.
Oh! how beautiful are your eyes at that first
hour when our silver ponds shimmer in the light
and reflect the day that is rising. Your forehead
is radiant and your blood beats.
Intense and wholesome life in all its divine
strength enters your bosom so completely, like a
driving happiness, that to contain its anguish
and its fury, your hands suddenly take mine, and
press them almost fearfully against your heart.
V
I bring you this evening, as an offering, my joy
at having plunged my body into the silk and gold
of the frank and joyous wind and the gorgeous
sun; my feet are bright with having walked among
the grasses; my hands sweet with having touched
the heart of flowers; my eyes shining at having
felt the tears suddenly well up and spring into
them before the earth in festival and its eternal
strength.
Space has carried me away drunken and fervent
and sobbing in its arms of moving brightness;
and I have passed I know not where, far away in
the distance, with pent-up cries set free by my
footsteps.
I bring you life and the beauty of the plains
breathe them on me in a good, frank breath; the
marjoram has caressed my fingers, and the air and
its light and its perfumes are in my flesh.