Mandragora/The Leaves
- THE LEAVES
THE first dead leaves of the year are down!
Look, how pale they float,
Under the bridge of the market-town
By wharf and barge and boat!
How cold the rain-drenched meadows lie,
Heavy with mist each one!
And the elm-trees stand how silently
Against the horizon!
Oh, Love, oh, Life, most strange, most blind
Are our days beneath the sun!
A leaf on the water; on the wind
A feather — and all is done.
The market-town still sleeps — Sweet Christ,
How motionless it seems!
As if one night of rain sufficed
To cover it with dreams.
Can it be only yesterday.
On this same bridge I stood.
And watched the red sun sink away
Behind a fairy wood?
The gods protect us all! So soon
Can summer cease? So light
Can they drift, the leaves that played love's tune?
Can the world end in a night?
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1963, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 60 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse