Winter has ended: the light is soft

Jeff Smallman

Winter has ended: the light is soft

And dances from the sun to the clear heaven.

The saddest heart must give way

To the great joy scattered through the air.

Even this sick and sulky Paris

Seems to welcome in the youthful suns

And as in a great embrace reaches forth

From its red rooftops a thousand arms.

For a year I have held springtime in my soul

And the green return of the sweet blossoming,

Like a flame around a flame,

Sets upon my ideal something ideal.

The blue sky extends, exhalts and crowns

The changeless azure where my love laughs.

The season is fine and my share is good

And all my hopes have their turn at last.

Let summer come! And let

Autumn and winter come after! And every season

Will be dear to me, oh You who decorate

This imagining and this thought!