Exile
By the sad waters of separation
Where we have wandered by divers ways,
I have but the shadow and imitation
Of the old memorial days.
In music I have no consolation,
No roses are pale enough for me;
The sound of the waters of separation
Surpasseth roses and melody.
By the sad waters of separation
Dimly I hear from an hidden place
The sigh of mine ancient adoration:
Hardly can I remember your face.
If you be dead, no proclamation
Sprang to me over the waste, gray sea:
Living, the waters of separation
Sever for ever your soul from me.
No man knoweth our desolation;
Memory pales of the old delight;
While the sad waters of separation
Bear us on to the ultimate night.
After Paul Verlaine-Ii
COLLOQUE SENTIMENTAL
Into the lonely park all frozen fast,
Awhile ago there were two forms who passed.
Lo, are their lips fallen and their eyes dead,
Hardly shall a man hear the words they said.
Into the lonely park, all frozen fast,
There came two shadows who recall the past.
'Dost thou remember our old ecstasy?'--
'Wherefore should I possess that memory?'--
'Doth thine heart beat at my sole name alway?
Still dost thou see my soul in visions?' 'Nay!'--
'They were fair days of joy unspeakable,
Whereon our lips were joined?'--'I cannot tell.'--
'Were not the heavens blue, was not hope high?'--
'Hope has fled vanquished down the darkling sky.'--
So through the barren oats they wandered,
And the night only heard the words they said.
