Hair Comfort - Antun Gustav Matoš

I watched you last night. In a dream. Sad. Dead.
In a fatal hall, in idyll of flowers,
On a high stand, in agony of candles,
Ready to give you my life as an offer.

I didn’t cry. I didn’t. I stood stunned
In the fatal hall, full of splendid death.
Doubting that the dark eyes are clear
From where once a better life to me shined.

All, all is dead; the eyes, breath and arms,
All that desperately I tried to revive
In a blind horror and the passion pains.

In the fatal hall, thoughts in greys.
Only your hair was still alive,
And told me: Death is a dream. Be calm!

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Antun Gustav Matoš (1873 - 1914) Croatia
Translated by Bozica Cvjetkovic
Source: Serbo-Croatian Poetry Translation