European Elegies/Autumn (1)/My tragic muse

6.MY TRAGIC MUSE


Alas, your lovely fingers touched
   A tragic lyre:
To veil your sad lament in verse
   My lines aspire.

There in faint quaverings of fear
   Your low voice grieves,
Like a night wind through withered flowers
   And fallen leaves;

Until in darkness side by side
   Once more we sleep,
And whisper to each other still,
   And mutely weep.


From the Romaic of Miltiades Malacassis.