L'Impossible
~Jules LaForgue(1860-1887)---a short life.
Tonight I may die. Rain, wind, sun
will scatter everywhere my heart, my nerves, my marrow.
All will be over for me. Neither sleep nor awakening.
I shall not have been out there among the stars.
In every direction, I know, on those distant worlds,
Are similar pilgrims of pale solitudes,
extending us their hands across the gentle dark,
Sister Humanities dreaming in multitudes.
Yes, brothers everywhere. That I know, I know.
And all alone like us. Trembling in sadness,
They beckon to us at night. Ah, shall we never go?
We would console one another in our great distress.
The stars, it is certain, will one day meet,
Heralding perhaps that universal dawn
Now sung by those beggars with caste marks of thought,
A fraternal outcry will be raised against God.
Alas, before that time, rain, wind, sun
Will have lost in the distance my heart, my nerves, my marrow.
All will be done without me. Neither dream or awakening,
I shall not have been among the gentle stars |
