European Elegies/Winter/Life
44.LIFE
Life is a moment's maze,
Life is an anguisht cry,
Life is a shifting haze,
A shadow that flutters by;
Life is a fugitive dream
That melts like snow in a stream
Or like mists in the morning sun;
Life is surpassing brief
And tenuous past belief,
For life is a falling leaf
That the winter winds have won .
Life is an anguisht cry,
Life is a shifting haze,
A shadow that flutters by;
Life is a fugitive dream
That melts like snow in a stream
Or like mists in the morning sun;
Life is surpassing brief
And tenuous past belief,
For life is a falling leaf
That the winter winds have won .
Life is a flower by a stream,
Life is a breath quick-drawn,
Life is a comet's gleam,
Life is a lark at dawn,
A cloud by the wild wind tost,
A wave on the wild sea lost
In the pathless ocean's spume;
Life is a bird's frail feather
Wing-torn by tempest weather
And drawn to dark gulfs nether
On the plangent winds of doom .
Life is a breath quick-drawn,
Life is a comet's gleam,
Life is a lark at dawn,
A cloud by the wild wind tost,
A wave on the wild sea lost
In the pathless ocean's spume;
Life is a bird's frail feather
Wing-torn by tempest weather
And drawn to dark gulfs nether
On the plangent winds of doom .
From the Portuguese of João de Deus Ramos.