The Grandmother Poem by Reva Kern

Dance, village girls
Sing your sweet songs of love:
Too fast, alas! a stormy sky
Comes to darken a most beautiful day.

In seeing you, I remember
And my pleasures and my success -
Like you, I was young and pretty
And like you, I knew it.
Suddenly my blond hair
Shows me some white
I have seen, like in nature
Winter following spring.

Dance, village girls
Sing your sweet songs of love:
Too fast, alas! A stormy sky
Comes to darken a most beautiful day.

Young and without experience
Of love I believed the sweet oaths
And I loved with confidence -
We believe in happiness at fifteen!
One flower, picked by Julien
Was the pledge of his faith -
But, before she withered
The ungrateful no longer thought about me!

Dance village girls
Sing your sweet songs of love:
Too fast, alas! A stormy sky
Comes to darken a most beautiful day.

At twenty years, a faithful friend
Softens my first sorrow -
I was sad, but I was pretty
He offered me his heart and his hand.
Too early for us came old age
We loved each other, we were old
Death broke our tenderness
My friend was the happiest!

Dance village girls
Sing your sweet songs of love:
Too fast, alas! A stormy sky
Comes to darken a most beautiful day.

For me, do not stop the dance
The sky is pure, I am at the port.
To the noisy pleasures of childhood,
The grandmother smiles again -
That tear that I erase
Do not sadden your young hearts,
The sun is shining on the ice,
Winter protects some flowers.

Dance village girls
Sing your sweet songs of love:
Too fast, alas! A stormy sky
Comes to darken a most beautiful day.

Translated from the poem LA GRAND-MÈRE by Sophie d'Arbouville