A slight noise wakes me up
While slumber flees from me
Without any remorse:
You sleep!
It's but a quaver rest1
That lies just as it breathes,2
Just an uncertain breeze,
So far,
Like a forlorn sailor
Sighting the scolding clouds
Can guess the harbinger
Of storm,
I hear the creaking masts,
The rigging, the sailcloth
By a sudden squall swollen:
You snore!
While I peacefully drowse
Just like a nightingale,
Fluting my melody
In vain,
You roar, trumpet and blare,
Like lion, elephant,
At the Grand Parade, at
Barnum.
After a whole concert
Of snorting, gasping brass,
Now you suddenly stop,
At last!
False alarm! I can hear
The party taking up,
Balloons blown up again:
You snore!
How nice you imitate
The pattering of hail,
The wind, the hurricane,
The gale,
And then the growling tiger
In the rustling bamboo,
Or the bellowing stag
In fog;
Sand hissing on a dune,
Wolf howling at the moon,
A bright and jolly fire
Rumbling;
The vague and murky note
Uttered by the bagpipes
When they sadly deflate:
You snore!
But then, one day you left
To leave in other beds
The sweet smell of your skin,
Your heart.
I do not better sleep
Without your charming noise;
The silence that followed
Is pain.
And yet, if I refuse
To feel, of jealousy,
The aching and useless
Torment,
I do hope that she spoils
Your nights, that crafty bitch,
And will get on your nerves,
Snoring!
1. Could also be understood as "half a sigh".2. Il ment comme il respire = he's a born liar.