LA. PHILOSOPHIE DE L'AMOUR

Traduit de Shelleij par Sir ToUeinache Sinclair. Les fontaines se mêlent avec les rivières, La rivière se mélange avec l'Océan, Les brises du ciel s'immiscent, pour toujours fières,

En joie, en hymen, en un grand élan ! Rien dans ce monde n'est seul, ou infructueux» Tout être, par une loi divine, en doux lien Dans un autre être se mêle et devient heureux.

Alors, pourquoi pas mon être et le tien ? Vois, les montagnes baisent la voûte étoilée; Les vagues s'étreignent, et l'une à l'autre est chère; Nulle fleur ni feuille ne serait pardonnée

Si elle dédaignait son aimant frère.

Les chauds rayons du soleil embrassent la terre, Par les rais de la lune la mer est baisée; Que valent tous ces doux baisers que j'énumère,

Si tu ne m'embrasses, ô vierge aimée?

POEM OiN HIS DOG

Translated from Lamartine bi/ Sir Toilemache Sinclair. Will you bear with me, beings, who have not on earth E'en this friend of the lonely man who knows his worth? Ah! my dear dog's sad, gentle look, and his low moan Caused tears to flow from my worn heart, thus not quite lone. I with my arms embraced his neck, which swelled with joy, Drops from my eyes fell on his form, to me ne'er coy. « Ah! only friend, I said to him », come, let's love now, For where God placed two hearts, 'tis sweet to love, I vow. Ah ! to return alone towards home, now vacant, sad, To see at one's approach no window open glad, When viewing one's own roof on the horizon clear, One says : « Oh! my return will cheer my kindred dear, A sister, friends, a wife, a motiier, for my sake Count from afar the steps which I have still to take, And in some moments, moved by my return, in glee, These walls will seem alive with love, to shelter me ! Ah ! to return alone, in silence, to one's door, When no familiar step there meets one as of yore. When of those echoes which long since awoke the ear. None, not e'en one, is touched by one's grieved voice so near, When the sad feeling which o'erwhelms one at one's hearth O'erflows in only one kind being on this earth. In the breast only of the old dog of the home, Which barks aloud at each sound of your steps which roam, To have this heart alone in union with your own, Where w'hat you feel's reflected in another's moan. That this eye which perceives you go or else remain. Which your tears cause unknowing, sees you weep with pain; That this sole eye on earth to which your own looks back, Which, if you were to die, would tlien a something lack. Ah! bitter 'tis perhaps, well, still 'tis sweet to you. My dog! God knows the distance 'tween us two;

Of Life's long ladders steps, alone He knows the goal

Which sep'rates thy bright instinct from thy master's soul,

Alone, He knows too by what secret link, what breath

Thou livest on his look and diest of his death.

And by what pity for our hearts He sends thee near

To love those still whom none love any longer here.

But though, dear creature, on the ground to lie thou'rt fain.

Ne'er has my foot thee touched with foolish harsh disdain,

Ne'er by a brutal word thy love I'd e'er repress,

Ne'er has my heart repulsed thy touching warm caress,

But ever I've revered in thy fond gaze benign

The wondrous goodness of thy Master, w ho is mine.

As one should e'er esteem His lowest creature here,

One's brother to th'extent which Nature willed, 'tis clear,

Ah! much loved dog, when thy soft eyes are lixed on me,

The silence gives us of our converse mute the key.

When near my bed thou watch'st if I'm awake, at last

One breath unequal from my breast thee rouses fast.

And reading then my sadness drear in my dimmed eyes,

Thou seek'st my cares in my brow's lines, thou hear'sl my

And to attract my thoughts, in order them to cheer, [sighs,

Thou lick'st more tenderly my hand to thee quite near;

Like a clear mirror my joy or my grief so keen

Makes thy fraternal eye unquiet or serene,

And shows the heart in thee with evidence so great,

That love surpasses quite th'intelligence, dear mate.

No! thou art not a vain illusion of the heart,

A mock'ry of man's sentiment, a thing apart,

A body organized, which wakes at a caress,

A false automaton of life and tenderness,

No! when this sentiment shall cease in thy dear eyes,

'T will be revived in 1 know not what nobler skies;

Of those who loved so much, the sympathy so warm.

Of man or dog ne'er dies, destroyed as by a storm ;

God for an instant severs, then rejoins the chain.

His heart is great enough to hold us free from pain.

Yes, we shall love each other as we loved on earth.

Who cares if instinct to these looks, or soul, gives birth?

Wherever friendship consecrates a loving heart.

Wherever Nature lights a feeling free from art,

God will no more extinguish his bright spark divine

In the grand stars of night, whose splendours in space shine,

Than in the humble look of that kind spaniel dear

Which led the blind man, dying on his grave so drear.

Come, come, last friend, whom my frail step rejoices, see!

Fear not that I should blush before our God for thee,

Lick my moist eyes, thy heart near mine place, glance above.

Loved by none else, let us, dear dog, each other love.