Evening

The evening brings back silence.

Seated on these deserted rocks

I track in the hazy air

The advancing chariot of night.

Venus rises on the horizon;

At my feet the amorous star

With its mysterious radiance

Turns the lawn's carpet white.

From the beech wood's dark foliage

I hear the palms rustle:

It seems that from the tombs

You can hear a ghost flutter.

Suddenly leaving the heavens,

A ray from the nocturnal star

Glides upon my solemn brow

And arrives to gently touch my eyes.

Gentle reflection of that globe of flame,

Charming ray, what do you want of me?

Do you come to my battered breast

To bring light to my soul?

Do you descend to reveal to me

The divine mystery of worlds?

The secrets hidden in the sphere

Where day goes to call you forth?

Are you a secret intelligence

Here to address the unhappy?

Do you come at night to shine on them

Like a ray of hope?

Do you come to unveil the future

To the tired heart which pleads with you?

Divine ray, are you the dawn

of the day which will not end?

My heart ignites at this clear light,

I feel unknown transports,

I dream of those who are no longer;

Gentle light, are you their soul?

Perhaps these happy spirits

Glide thus to these woody groves

Enveloped with their image,

I believe I feel nearer to them!

Ah, if it is you, beloved ghosts!

Far from the crowd and far from the noise,

Return then every night

And mingle with my reveries.

Bring back peace and love

To the breast of my exhausted soul,

Like the dewy night

Which descends after the fires of day.

Come!...but funereal mists

Mount the edges of the horizon:

They veil the sweet ray,

And everything returns to darkness.