Ballad to the moon
Jacques Offenbach
It was, in the dark night,
On the yellowed steeple,
The moon,
Like a dot on an i.
Moon, what dark spirit
Walks at the end of a leash
Through the gloom,
Your face and your profile?
Are you the one-eyed heavens' single eye?
Which bigoted cherub
Peers at us
Beneath your pale mask?
Are you merely a ball?
A big fat daddy-long-legs
That rolls, that rolls
Without legs and arms?
Give us back the huntress,
Diana with the virginal breast,
Who chases relentlessly
Some morning stag!
Phoebe who, after dark
On a shepherd's lips
Alights,
Like a delicate bird.
Moon, in our memory,
Of your fair loves
The story
Will always make you more beautiful..
And ever restored to youth,
You shall by the passer-by
be blessed,
Full moon or crescent.
The sailor will love you
In his great ship,
Floating
Beneath the clear sky!
And, come wind or snow,
Myself, each evening,
What do I do,
Coming here to sit?
I come to see at dusk,
On the yellowed steeple,
The moon, the moon
Like a dot on an i.