Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893.
TranslationsFrom the French. Consolation
By François de Malherbe
W
And shall the sad discourse
Whispered within thy heart, by tenderness paternal,
Only augment its force?
By death’s frequented ways,
Has it become to thee a labyrinth never ending,
Where thy lost reason strays?
Nor should I be content,
As a censorious friend, to solace thine affliction
By her disparagement.
To fates the most forlorn;
A rose, she too hath lived as long as live the roses,
The space of one brief morn.
Death has his rigorous laws, unparalleled, unfeeling;
All prayers to him are vain;
Cruel, he stops his ears, and, deaf to our appealing,
He leaves us to complain.
Unto these laws must bend;
The sentinel that guards the barriers of the Louvre
Cannot our kings defend.
Is never for the best;
To will what God doth will, that is the only science
That gives us any rest.