European Elegies/Winter/Sahara vitae
46.SAHARA VITAE
Above the level waste the heavens reel
A boundless arching vault of lucid fire,
Whence the inexorable sun in ire
Riddles the sea of sand with shafts of steel.
A boundless arching vault of lucid fire,
Whence the inexorable sun in ire
Riddles the sea of sand with shafts of steel.
There, far across the blazing wilderness
Of dust and ruthless flame, the eye with bliss
Sees the green palm-fronds of love's oasis
Off'ring illusive hope to man's distress.
Of dust and ruthless flame, the eye with bliss
Sees the green palm-fronds of love's oasis
Off'ring illusive hope to man's distress.
But death's sirocco swirls about the sky
Its dark dust-pillars, overwhelms all life,
And satiated sinks in lethargy.
Its dark dust-pillars, overwhelms all life,
And satiated sinks in lethargy.
Then the sun flings once more clear shafts of red,
And o'er the hidden graves of futile strife
The unmarked sands lie passionless and dead.
And o'er the hidden graves of futile strife
The unmarked sands lie passionless and dead.
From the Portuguese of Olavo Bilac.