European Elegies/Autumn (1)/The unendurable
9.THE UNENDURABLE
My broken spirit cannot bearThat, as of old, the sun is gay;That, as when life was still your share,The clock ticks on upon the stairAnd day comes calmly after day;
That, when the twilight shadows flit,And fireside circles form anon,The place where you, dear, used to sitIs filled with others' smiles and wit,And nothing seems to know you gone;
While far across the quiet nightThe pallid, flickering moonbeams pass,And with indifference infiniteLay bare in wavering ghostly lightYour gravestone in the churchyard grass.
From the German of Theodor Storm.