Paul Verlaine, "Setting Suns" (Soleils couchants)

[zenithfractal5.livejournal.com]

A sickly dawn
Spreads over fields
The sadnesses
of setting suns.
The sadnesses
Lull with soft songs
My heart lost in
The setting suns.
And then strange dreams
Which seem like suns
That set on shores
Vermilion ghosts
Drift endlessly
Reminding me
Of mighty suns
That set on shores.

--Selected Poems, translation by Martin Sorrell

Comments

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

I love this poem. The original French is beautiful, too.

[zenithfractal5.livejournal.com]

A brooding poem, heavy with sonorous light.