Flower and Butterfly
The humble flower bespake the heavenly butterfly:
"Flee no more!
See how our fates are diverse. Fixed to earth am I,
Thou canst soar!
"Yet the same breath of love is ours; from men afar
Both are fain
To dwell; so like we be, 't is soothly said we are
Flowerets twain.
"But, ah! The air uplifts thee, while the earth still doth hold me, --
Fortune's spite!
With fragrant breath I long to embalm thee and enfold thee
In heaven-flight.
"In vain! -- too far thou flitt'st, through garden and through meadow,
Fair and fleet,
Whilst I all lonely bide, and watch my circling shadow
At my feet.
"Thou fliest; then return'st; again afar art borne,
Void of fears;
And alway find'st thou me, 'neath every roseate morn,
Bathed in tears.
"Oh, that our love may prove the same sweets summer brings,
Fair king mine,
Even like thy slave take root, or bless me with bright wings
Like to thine!"
ENVOY, TO ____
Roses and Butterflies, the grave must reunite us,
Soon or late.
Wherefore await it, say? Wilt not we now unite us,
Fate with fate?
Haply within the air, if from such place thy pleasure
Tak blithe birth;
I' the meads, if, like a flower, thou shed thy beauteous treasure
On the earth.
E'en where thou wilt! What skills it? Be thou colour bright,
Fragrance sweet;
Resplendent butterfly, or flower too fond for flight;
Bllom,--wing fleet!
To live with one another! -- such the sole good worth
One least sigh;
With that, let chance allot what home it will, -- dark earth,
Or blue sky!
From Les Chants Du Crepuscule
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