Autumn Song (Chant d'automne)
Charles Baudelaire 1857
Soon we shall plunge into cold shadows;
Farewell, vivid light of our too-short summers!
Already I hear the funereal thud
Of echoing logs on the courtyard floor.
I listen, trembling, to the fall of each log;
A gallows being built makes no duller sound.
My spirit is like the tower that falls
To the remorseless blows of the battering-ram.
Rocked by those monotone blows, it seems
Somewhere in haste they are nailing a coffin.
But whose? Yesterday summer; autumn now!
This eerie sound rings like some farewell.
Sigh.
Are you kidding me? Following (another) summer of heat domes, record-breaking temperatures, not to mention torrents of water, you're melancholy? Right now I never want to see summer again.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea where you live Glendon, as you have no information in your profile, but it's obviously not the UK.
Delete2021 - "the year that Summer forgot". Jx
I shan't give in until the fall of the first snowflake. You can have the leaves and flowers, leave me my sun and warmth! Kizzes.
ReplyDeleteMe too - it's been lovely and mild here for a few days, and we're hoping for an "Indian Summer" to make up for the grotty season we had this year. Jx
DeleteDeep joy. I'm going to buy lots of twinkling fairy lights and string them up everywhere, I think it'll help get me through it.
ReplyDeleteSx
I prefer gin, myself. Jx
Delete"Yesterday summer; autumn now!"
ReplyDeleteA lovely poem to mark the passing of a terrible Summer.
Fingers crossed next year will make up for it... Jx
DeleteAutumn I can just about manage, but winter? No. I forbid it! Me and my be-tassled shawl are going to board our yacht and gaze at the stars during our Indian Summer until Spring arrives.
ReplyDeleteI am a firm believer in hibernation. Jx
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