Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
France: Vols. IX–X. 1876–79.

La Chaudeau

At La Chaudeau

By Xavier Marmier (1808–1892)

Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

AT La Chaudeau, ’t is long since then,

I was young,—my years twice ten,—

All things smiled on the happy boy,

Dreams of love and songs of joy,

Azure of heaven, and wave below,

At La Chaudeau.

To La Chaudeau I come back old,

My head is gray, my blood is cold,

Seeking along the meadow ooze,

Seeking beside the river Seymouse,

The days of my spring-time of long ago

At La Chaudeau.

At La Chaudeau nor heart nor brain

Ever grows old with grief and pain;

A sweet remembrance keeps off age,

A tender friendship doth still assuage

The burden of sorrow that one may know

At La Chaudeau.

At La Chaudeau, had fate decreed

To limit the wandering life I lead,

Peradventure I still forsooth

Should have preserved my fresh, green youth,

Under the shadows the hill-tops throw

At La Chaudeau.

At La Chaudeau, live on, my friends,

Happy to be where God intends;

And sometimes by the evening fire

Think of him whose sole desire

Is again to sit in the old château

At La Chaudeau.