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Duparc - Testament

Testament

Duparc (1883)

Pour que le vent te les apporte
Sur l'aile noire d'un remord,
J'écrirai sur la feuille morte
Les tortures de mon cœur mort.

Toute ma sève s'est tarie
Aux clairs midis de ta beauté
Et, comme à la feuille flétrie,
Rien de vivant ne m'est resté.

Tes yeux m'ont brûlé jusqu'à l'âme,
Comme des soleils sans merci!
Feuille que le gouffre réclame,
L'autan va m'emproter aussi.

Mais avant, pour qu'il te les porte
Sur l'aile noire d'un remord,
J'écrirai sur la feuille morte
Les tortures de mon cœur mort!

Armand Silvestre

Testament

 

So that wind may bring you them
on the black wing of a regret,
I shall inscribe the torments
of my dead heart on the dead leaf.

All my sap has dried up
in the bright middays of your beauty
and, as with the withered leaf,
nothing living remains for me.

Your eyes have burnt me to the soul,
like merciless suns!
Leaf which the chasm demands,
the south wind will carry me away too.

But first, so that it may bring you them
on the black wing of a regret,
I shall inscribe the torments
of my dead heart on the dead leaf!

© translated by Christopher Goldsack

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