Colloque Sentimental

Translated by Aleister Crowley, from the French of Paul Verlaine
Drawing by Sydney Joseph

Vanity Fair, September 1915, Vol. 5 No. 1, p 66

 

In the ancient, frozen, solitary park

Two figures passed anon—now mark!;

:

Their eyes are dead, their lips are soft and gray;

One scarce can hear the words they say!

:

In the ancient, frozen, solitary park;

Two ghosts evoke the past—oh, hark!

:

“Does thy heart beat still at my name, and glow?

Seest thou my soul in dreams, dear?”—“No.”

:

“Ah! the fair days of joyance and of gree

When our mouths kissed, ah, kissed!”—“Maybe!”

:

“How blue the sky was, as our hope was clear!”

“Hope has gone down to Hell’s nadir.”

:

So, in the foolish aleys they conferred,

And only midnight overheard.

 

Index | Bernard Shaw on Self Effacement | Aleister Crowley: Mystic and Mountain Climber | Vampire Women | The Hokku—a New Verse Form | A Hindu at the Polo Ground | Colloque Sentimental | With Muted Strings | The Prize Winners of the Hokku Contest | Three Little Prose Poems | The Hokku Winners | The Nonsense About Vers Libre