The Shining Hours (IV) - Emile Verhaeren

The sky has unfolded into night,
and the moon seems to watch
over the sleeping silence.

All is so pure and clear;
all is so pure and so pale in the air
and on the lakes of the friendly countryside,
that there is anguish in the fall
from a reed of a drop of water,
that tinkles and then is silent in the water.

But I have your hands between mine and
your steadfast eyes that hold me so gently
with their earnestness;
and I feel that you are so much at peace
with everything that nothing,
not even a fleeting suspicion of fear,
will overcast, be it but for a moment,
the holy trust that sleeps in us as an infant rests.

---

Emile Verhaeren (1855 - 1916) Belgium
Translated by F.S. Flint
Source: The love poems of Emile Verhaeren, Translated by F.S. Flint, Constable and Co., 1916