VERSES Imitated from the Chev. du Parney Il est tems mon Eleonore!&c 1798.
VERSES
Imitated from the Chev. du Parney
Il est tems mon Eleonore!&c
1798. [1]
The time is come, beloved friend!
The moment of delusion past!
Here let our faults, our weakness end,
And here our errors cease at last.
'Tis time to stop the idle tears5
Which tender sorrow taught to flow,
Silence the hopes, resist the fears,
Forbid the sigh, restrain the woe.
The brilliant moments of delight
Are past, the sweet enchantment o'er,10
Our swift wing'd pleasures take their flight,
Oh let us dream of joy no more!
Oh cease the image to recal
Of pleasures which must ne'er return;
Forget the past, and banish all15
The fond ideas love would mourn!
I quit this melancholy spot,
Where Hope oft sung her syren song,
While deaf to all that reason taught
I madly listen'd to her tongue.20
The laws of duty heard at length
I yield to her severe control,
And virtue's hand with patient strength
Shall burst the fetters of my soul.
Thy voice I must no longer hear25
But in this last and sad Adieu,
And to that sound, which most I fear,
Eternal absence must ensue.
Yet tho' a dreaded distance vast,
And ocean's waves divide our fate,30
My tedious days shall not be past
Unconscious of thy future state.
With beating heart, attentive ear,
Thy much lov'd name I oft shall seize,
Thou too, wilt sure with interest hear,35
The name which once had power to please.
Accustom'd to this cruel pain
My heart may absence learn to bear,
But still thy image shall retain
'Till life shall throb no longer there! -- 40
Notes
[1] EDITOR'S NOTE: "Verses Imitated from the Chev. du Parney Il est tems mon Eleonore!&c 1798" does not appear in Psyche, with Other Poems or Mary (or Collected Poems and Journals). It presents a verse translation of Évariste de Parny's 29-line "Élégie XIII" from Élégies (1784), whose opening lines declare “It is time, my Éléonore, / To put an end to our errors”:
Il est temps, mon Éléonore,
De mettre un terme à nos erreurs;
Il est temps
d'arrêter les pleurs
Que l'amour nous dérobe encore.
Il disparaît l'âge si doux,5
L'âge brillant de la folie!
Lorsque
tout change autour de nous,
Changeons, ô mon unique amie!
D'un bonheur qui fuit sans retour
Cessons de rappeler
l'image;10
Et des pertes du tendre Amour
Que l'Amitié nous dédommage.
Je quitte enfin ces tristes lieux
Où me ramena
l'Espérance,
Et l'Océan entre nous deux15
Va mettre un intervalle immense!
Il faut même qu'à mes adieux
Succède une
éternelle absence!
Le devoir m'en fait une loi.
Sur mon destin sois plus tranquille;20
Mon nom passera jusqu'à toi:
Quel
que soit mon nouvel asile,
Le tien parviendra jusqu'à moi.
Trop heureux si tu vis heureuse;
A cette absence
douloureuse25
Mon coeur pourra s'accoutumer.
Mais ton image va me suivre;
Et si je cessé de t'aimer,
Crois que j'aurai
cesse de vivre.
