The Sleep-Walkers

In the town where I was born lived a woman and her daughter,

Who walked in their sleep.

 

One night, while silence enfolded the world, the woman and her

Daughter, walking, yet asleep, met in their mist-veiled garden.

 

And the mother spoke, and she said: 'At last, at last, my enemy!

You by whom my youth was destroyed--who have built up your life

Upon the ruins of mine! Would I could kill you!'

 

And the daughter spoke, and she said: 'O hateful woman, selfish

And old! Who stand between my freer self and me! Who would have

My life an echo of your own faded life! Would you were dead!'

 

At that moment a cock crew, and both women awoke. The mother said

Gently, 'Is that you, darling?' And the daughter answered gently,

'Yes, dear.'