Charles van Lerberghe

Gaze into our depths: we are the Emerald,
Everlasting and leafy, like the soul of the oceans,
Where perfumes roam through the warm night,
And flows the wave of the great angels of the wind.
...

I say, teach me who you are, Azrael,
And the dark angel rose in the sky,
Stretching his wide wings over me.
...

Dove! Dove! Enchanted Dove
That sways around me,
Why are you afraid, white dove?
Hear my voice, dove, my sister.
...

O death, dust of stars,
Rise beneath my steps.
Like a flame, maddened with wind,
Come, somber breath, where I waver.
...

The radiant fruit of gold
Shimmers, swaying in the shadows,
Gleaming between the rustling leaves,
A waiting treasure, long foretold.
...

Place your pale diadem
Upon my head, ray
Of the pure moonlight,
And leave your white veil
Over my shoulders.
...

The wave is shivering, a silken length of
Mourning drapery unwinding in the night,
The deep wave, mute and black,
Where the moon suddenly casts its shine.
...

My resonant angels came
Among the roses of sunrise,

Like a peal of laughter in the air
Or breezes over the waves.
...

O God, who could be there
In the absence beyond
This door?
Who has risen before
Me, from dead dust
And the void?
...

Through the happiness of twilight,
Who is it who sighs, what is the lament?
Who has come to rest against my heart,
Like a wounded bird?
...

Along the pale waters, in these valleys,
Silvered with moonlight and willows,
In the blue twilight, two by two,
A hand on a shoulder,
Or alone,
Slow shadows trial past:
They are the souls.
...

Be absolved by my decree
Of all treachery
And of all malice
O my lovely Serpent, and glide
In peace, a sinuous sunbeam
Among these roses.
...

But how to understand and how to name you,
O my ever-changing angels, transforming yourselves ceaselessly
You, in whom there is nothing that remains,
Immutable in itself, one entire day, one single hour?
...

But one night, Venus came to bring me roses.
It was in the grove, where I was yet asleep.
She was nude and blonde, sparkling, roseate,
And all of the sombre air around her was of gold.
...

Do you still remember,
O my unicorn,
A wondrous night,
Deep in the great woods,
It was I who took you;
I was as wild as you.
...