Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
France: Vols. IX–X. 1876–79. | | | | Versailles | | To My Brooklet | | Jean-François Ducis (1733–1816) |
| | Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow |
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THOU brooklet, all unknown to song, | |
| Hid in the covert of the wood! | |
| Ah, yes, like thee I fear the throng, | |
| Like thee I love the solitude. | |
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| O brooklet, let my sorrows past | 5 |
| Lie all forgotten in their graves, | |
| Till in my thoughts remain at last | |
| Only thy peace, thy flowers, thy waves. | |
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| The lily by thy margin waits, | |
| The nightingale, the marguerite; | 10 |
| In shadow here he meditates | |
| His nest, his love, his music sweet. | |
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| Near thee the self-collected soul | |
| Knows naught of error or of crime; | |
| Thy waters, murmuring as they roll, | 15 |
| Transform his musings into rhyme. | |
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| Ah, when, on bright autumnal eves, | |
| Pursuing still thy course, shall I | |
| List the soft shudder of the leaves, | |
| And hear the lapwing’s plaintive cry? * * * * * | 20 |
| My humble brooklet, by thy flight, | |
| Since life, alas! so soon is gone, | |
| Often remind thine eremite | |
| How swift the stream of Time flows on. | | | |
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