The Setting of the Romantic Sun

---

How lovely is the sun fresh in the skies,
Blasting his good day to the world below!
- Happy the one who can with passion know
The sunset's glory, dreamlike to the eyes!

I have seen all: the flower, furrow, spring
Swoon in his beaming like a throbbing heart...
- Now it is late, run westward, let us start,
To trap one ray, at least one fading thing.

But I pursue the dying God in vain;
Remorseless Night establishes her reign,
Black, damp and baneful, full of shivering;

At the swamp's edge swim odours of the tomb,
And where my bruising foot, there in the gloom,
Steps fearful, snails and toads are quivering.


Přeložil James McGowan