European Elegies/Autumn (2)/Fiat nox
92.FIAT NOX
Now let night's still extinction lend releaseTo those who sat in sorrow through the dayAnd felt that all life's cares around them layLike billows of grey universal seas.
Noon was a sultry torment; tears' increaseMade morning seem a century away:Ah, night, sow thy cool shadows soon, I pray,And hush my restless heart in drowsy peace.
My spirit has consumed itself in strifeAnd futile brooding over passion's stress,The tears of loss, the galling chains of life.
But see, the night and nothingness draw near,Deep yawns the gulf of dark forgetfulness,And gladly into silence we fall sheer.
From the Finnish of Veikko Antero Koskenniemi.