L'invitation au voyage [English translation]

Think, would it not be

Sweet to live with me

All alone, my child, my love? —

Sleep together, share

All things, in that fair

Country you remind me of?

Charming in the dawn

There, the half-withdrawn

Drenched, mysterious sun appears

In the curdled skies,

Treacherous as your eyes

Shining from behind their tears.

There, restraint and order bless

Luxury and voluptuousness.

We should have a room

Never out of bloom:

Tables polished by the palm

Of the vanished hours

Should reflect rare flowers

In that amber-scented calm;

Ceilings richly wrought,

Mirrors deep as thought,

Walls with eastern splendor hung,

All should speak apart

To the homesick heart

In its own dear native tongue.

There, restraint and order bless

Luxury and voluptuousness.

See, their voyage past,

To their moorings fast,

On the still canals asleep,

These big ships; to bring

You some trifling thing

They have braved the furious deep.

— Now the sun goes down,

Tinting dyke and town,

Field, canal, all things in sight,

Hyacinth and gold;

All that we behold

Slumbers in its ruddy light.

There, restraint and order bless

Luxury and voluptuousness.