O Night! O Dark Night!

Elegy

 

O night! O dark night!

Why didst thou come tonight?

Why thou hath broken the vestibule of my beloved?

Why thou hath swallowed

The aroma of my dearest?

Who hath just laid her veil on beloved’s canopy;

Who hath sunk in the deep ocean;

Who hath drunk the finest wine.

Who hath bathed herself in Calamus;

Didst thou not know?

My beloved is resting on the bed of pyre!

O dawn! Dearest dawn!

When thou hath broken;

My beloved would come again in saffron.

In thy coming I would see again the morning star;

And would rejoice with my beloved now and forever.

O where thou hath my beloved hidden;

If thou would not come,

My beloved would not happy become.

O how dost thou forget me?

Who peepest me from the core of twilight;

O why thou give me no answers?

Who would then listen to me?

O ye the celestial open wings,

Why thou hath become dumb?

O ye the dancing plants of the earth,

What hath happened to thee?

Or thou hath become numb!

Who would now gather for me the buds of roses?

Who would then now with me sing and rejoice?

Who would ever listen to my voice?

And if I sing a sad song for thee my beloved,

Would you come again and sing with me?

And if I take thee to the abode of Utopia

Would you come and stay with me?

But I now know thee my beloved;

Thou art in the rest of peace.

And I now no more see thee again;

In the sofa of thy vestibule,

Neither in the nightmare nor in the ecstasy,

But with the brimful eyes,

I would see thee now only in the epitaph;

And then in the Asphodel Meadows.