Elegy for you and me
Nous, nous rencontrerons par hassard, dans la rue...
Paul Géraldy
I
I will go on dreaming as life goes by
and you will start fading slowly from my dream
A year and another will fall like dry leafs
from the millenary tree of time
And your smile, full of the light of dawn,
will vanish in the growing shadow of memory
II
I will go on dreaming as life goes by
and perhaps slowly I will stop writing verses
Under the vulgar tiredness of daily routine,
under disillusions and boredom
You, who never dreamed but possible dreams,
will slowly stop looking at your reflection in the mirror
III
Peraphs, we will casually meet one day
when crossing a street and we will great each other
I might think «How pretty she is still»,
you might think, «He's getting old».
You will be alone, or with another;
or you'll be with a child that should have been ours
IV
And life will continue dying, year after year,
like a dark river that runs toward silence.
A friend one day will tell me he has seen you,
or a song from back then will bring back your memory.
And during those sad nights of stillness and stars
I will think of you briefly, but every time less…
V
And life will go on; I will keep on dreaming
but there will no longer be a woman's name in my dream.
I will have forgotten you definitively
and over my knees my grandchildren will rest.
(And perhaps by then when crossing a street
we come face to face without recognition)
VI
And on a sunny day they will cover me with soil,
my hands forever crossed over my chest.
You, with your sad eyes and your white hair
will spend the hours knitting and yawning.
And every Spring roses will be reborn,
even if you are old and even if I am dead.
Translated by Celestina
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