Stormy Night - Jean Lahor

The wind screamed, the wind howled its rages,

The ocean leaped the length of the cliff

And my soul, faced with those surges

Of black rolling waves, breathed with greater relief.

The moon seemed mad as it raced through the skies

Lighting the night in bright, misty shades;

And not far away, furious barks now arise

In the howling and clamor of high foaming waves.

- O eternal nature, have you too your despairs?

And your soul also its hours of agonized pain?

And these great storms, do they not result from your tears

And these mad winds, from your cries of infinite strain?

Mother of our creation, are you suffering, too,

And we, like your stormy nights, often as savage,

Inconstant, tormented, as ill-tempered as you,

We are surely creatures made in your image.

---

Jean Lahor (also Jean Caselli; real name Henri Cazalis) (1840 - 1909) France

Translated by David Paley

Source: Poems Without Frontiers