Alphonse de Lamartine Geoffrey Barto Poetic Meditations Geoffrey Barto 2002 In vain day follows day, They slip by, leave no trace; Nothing can erase you from my soul, O last dream of love! I see my rapid years Building up behind me, As the old oak tree Sees fall its faded leaves. My forehead is bleached by time; My chilled blood barely flows, Like the wave that is carried By the south wind's cold breath. But your young and shining image, That regret comes to embellish, In my breast shall never grow old: Like the soul it has no age. No, you haven't left my eyes; And when my solitary gaze Ceased to see you on the earth, Suddenly I saw you in the sky. There you still appear to me As you were that last day When toward your celestial journey You flew off with the dawn. Your pure and touching beauty Has followed you even into the sky; Your eyes, where life was fading, A ray of immortality! From the breeze your love-filled breath Still support you long hair; On your breast, ondulating waves Fall in ebony tresses. The shadow of this uncertain veil Softens still your image, As dawn which lets go Of its last veils of morning. From the sun the celestial flame With the days returns and flees; But my love has no night, And you shine always upon my soul. It's you I hear, I see, In the desert, in the clouds; The wave reflects your image; The breeze brings me your voice. While the earth sleeps, If I hear the sighing of the wind, I believe I've heard you murmur Sacred words in my ear. If I admire these scattered fires Sprinkled across the veil of night, I believe I see you in every star Most pleasing to my sight. And if the breath of the breeze Leaves me drunken with the perfume Of flowers in its sweetest odors It's your breath that I inhale. It's your hand that dries my tears, When I go, sad and alone, To let my prayer go forth in secret Near my consoling altars. When I sleep, you watch in shadow, Your wings rest upon me; All my dreams come from you, Sweet as the gaze of a shadow. During my sleep, if your hand Undid the thread of my days From the celestial side of my soul I would go to awaken in your breast. Like two rays of dawn, Like two sighs mixt together, Our two souls no longer form But one soul, and yet I sigh.