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« Blessed martyrs, burned for your love of Christ,
you sang in the flames
as if you were walking through morning dew”
Book of Offices for
Lent
These words redolent of gardens in flower,
sweet words,
words that quietly resound
in the heart’s half-light!
Words that go from the blood into Love
and from Love into the blood
and become the source of life,
like mild weather, joyful, tender, free!
Words of liquid perfume, well-matured words,
luminous, aromatic, iridescent!
As soon as it says these words
the soul can outlive all solitude!
A wind scarcely born,
lapping water, swift
dumbstruck amazement!
Hymns which exalt the saints:
flowing fields where all the words of the earth
flourish: lily, hyacinth,
snowdrop, bellflower, violet!
Through the secret doors,
now!
Words, you lay on
my trembling lips
the burden, the scented weight
of painful illumination!
Suddenly!
Flakes of dawn light,
unclothed,
within!
Translated from the French
by Norton Hodges. |
