Sunday #Poetry: Vile Spring

“Poetry is truth in its Sunday clothes.”
~Joseph Roux

“Vile Spring”
Pierre-Jean de Béranger
translated by Wilfrid Thorley

I SAW her at her window set,
Myself at mine all winter through;
And well we loved who’d never met,
Our kisses crossed the avenue.
Between the lindens bare of green
The sight of her made all seem gay;
But now you’ve made the boughs a screen,
Vile Spring! Why can’t you keep away?

Their leafy arches serve to ban
For me that lovely seraph bright
I first saw feed her feathered clan
One morning when the frost was white;
They summoned her with songs that so
Became the cue for Cupid’s play:
There’s nothing lovelier than snow!
Vile Spring! Why can’t you keep away?

When she awakes you are the cause
I cannot see her leave her bed
As fresh as when Aurora draws
The rosy curtains overhead.
Now too at night I’m left in doubt
What time my fair star hides her ray,
And when she blows her candle out:
Vile Spring! Why can’t you keep away?

‘Tis Winter that I’m pining for:
Ah! what I’d give to hear again
The sound of pelting snows that pour
In music on the window-pane.
What good are all your flowers to me,
Your zephyrs and your suns of May,
When her sweet smile I cannot see?
Vile Spring! Why can’t you keep away?