'Spleen'

I was not sorrowful, I could not weep,
And all my memories were put to sleep.

I watched the river grow more white and strange,
All day till evening I watched it change.

All day till evening I watched the rain
Beat wearily upon the window pane.

I was not sorrowful, but only tired
Of everything that ever I desired.

Her lips, her eyes, all day became to me
The shadow of a shadow utterly.

All day mine hunger for her heart became
Oblivion, until the evening came,

And left me sorrowful, inclined to weep,
With all my memories that could not sleep.


Ernest Dowson
in; Verses
Originally published 1896

What Is Love?

What is Love?
Is it a folly,
Is it mirth, or melancholy?
Joys above,
Are there many, or not any?
What is Love?

If you please,
A most sweet folly!
Full of mirth and melancholy:
Both of these!
In its sadness worth all gladness,
If you please!

Prithee where,
Goes Love a-hiding?
Is he long in his abiding
Anywhere?
Can you bind him when you find him;
Prithee, where?

With spring days
Love comes and dallies:
Upon the mountains, through the valleys
Lie Love's ways.
Then he leaves you and deceives you
In spring days.

Ernest Dowson

April Love

We have walked in Love’s land a little way,
We have learnt his lesson a little while,
And shall we not part at the end of day,
With a sigh, a smile?

A little while in the shine of the sun,
We were twined together, joined lips, forgot
How the shadows fall when the day is done,
And when Love is not.

We have made no vows—there will none be broke,
Our love was free as the wind on the hill,
There was no word said we need wish unspoke,
We have wrought no ill.

So shall we not part at the end of day,
Who have loved and lingered a little while,
Join lips for the last time, go our way,
With a sigh, a smile?


Ernest Dowson
(London- 1867-1900)

'Autumnal'

Pale amber sunlight falls across
The reddening October trees,
That hardly sway before a breeze
As soft as summer: summer’s loss
Seems little, dear! on days like these.

Let misty autumn be our part!
The twilight of the year is sweet:
Where shadow and the darkness meet
Our love, a twilight of the heart
Eludes a little time’s deceit.

Are we not better and at home
In dreamful Autumn, we who deem
No harvest joy is worth a dream?
A little while and night shall come,
A little while, then, let us dream.

Beyond the pearled horizons lie
Winter and night: awaiting these
We garner this poor hour of ease,
Until love turn from us and die
Beneath the drear November trees.


Ernest Dowson
(England 1867-1900)

Melancolia

À volta todas as rosas eram vermelhas
A hera era preta.

Querida, assim com um só mover de cabeça teu,
Todos os meus velhos desesperos despertarão!

Demasiado azul, demasiado terno era o céu,
O ar demasiado suave, demasiado verde o mar.

Eu receio sempre, e eu não sei porquê,
Um lamentável afastamento de ti.
Eu estou cansado dos ramos de azevinho
E enfadado do alegre espinheiro

De todos os infindáveis caminhos do país;
De tudo, meu Deus! exceto de ti.


Ernest Dowson
(Inglaterra
2 August 1867 – 23 February 1900)

Chanson sans Paroles

In the deep violet air,
Not a leaf is stirred;
There is no sound heard,
But afar, the rare
Trilled voice of a bird.

Is the wood’s dim heart,
And the fragrant pine,
Incense, and a shrine
Of her coming? Apart,
I wait for a sign.

What the sudden hush said,
She will hear, and forsake,
Swift, for my sake,
Her green, grassy bed:
She will hear and awake!

She will hearken and glide,
From her place of deep rest,
Dove-eyed, with the breast
Of a dove, to my side:
The pines bow their crest.

I wait for a sign:
The leaves to be waved,
The tall tree-tops laved
In a flood of sunshine,
This world to be saved!

In the deep violet air,
Not a leaf is stirred;
There is no sound heard,
But afar, the rare
Trilled voice of a bird.

Ernest Dowson
(England)

Se tivermos de nos separar

Se tivermos de nos separar
Então que seja desta maneira.
Sem coração para coração,
Nem com a vã angústia de um beijo;
Mas toca na minha mão e diz:
"Até amanhã ou qualquer outro dia,
Se tivermos de nos separar".

Palavras são tão fracas
Quando o amor foi tão forte;
Deixa o silêncio falar:
"A vida é muito pequena e o amor é longo;
Um tempo para semear e colher,
E depois da colheita um longo tempo para dormir,
Mas as palavras são fracas"

Ernest Dowson
(Inglaterra)

Gray Nights

A while we wandered (thus it is I dream!)
Through a long, sandy track of No Man’s Land,
Where only poppies grew among the sand,
The which we, plucking, cast with scant esteem,
And ever sadlier, into the sad stream,
Which followed us, as we went, hand in hand,
Under the estrangèd stars, a road unplanned,
Seeing all things in the shadow of a dream.

And ever sadlier, as the stars expired,
We found the poppies rarer, till thine eyes
Grown all my light, to light me were too tired,
And at their darkening, that no surmise
Might haunt me of the lost days we desired,
After them all I flung those memories!


Ernest Dowson
(England)