European Elegies/Winter/Sahara vitae
46.SAHARA VITAE
Above the level waste the heavens reelA boundless arching vault of lucid fire,Whence the inexorable sun in ireRiddles the sea of sand with shafts of steel.
There, far across the blazing wildernessOf dust and ruthless flame, the eye with blissSees the green palm-fronds of love's oasisOff'ring illusive hope to man's distress.
But death's sirocco swirls about the skyIts 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 strifeThe unmarked sands lie passionless and dead.
From the Portuguese of Olavo Bilac.