European Elegies/Winter/Unhappiness
31.UNHAPPINESS
Night makes my grief more tense and tragical. . .
Disquiet haunts the darkness like a ghost,
And writes with shadowy fingers on the wall,
A menacing reminder of things lost.
Disquiet haunts the darkness like a ghost,
And writes with shadowy fingers on the wall,
A menacing reminder of things lost.
The flooding tears that from my sorrow start
Wash down the silted miseries of the past;
Black clouds envelop and suffuse my heart,
And freeze my dreams, and leave my hopes aghast.
Wash down the silted miseries of the past;
Black clouds envelop and suffuse my heart,
And freeze my dreams, and leave my hopes aghast.
Yet, oh that some great Hand's transfiguring rites
Would set soft roses where rough thorns now are,
And with the touch of peace transform my night's
Egyptian anguish with a paschal star!
Would set soft roses where rough thorns now are,
And with the touch of peace transform my night's
Egyptian anguish with a paschal star!
From the Spanish of Juan Ramón Jiménez.