Paul Verlaine - An Exchange of Feelings

[runespoor]

Provided the title for my Tim-Steph fic for the Terrific Table of Robins, Why Stir the Memory.

An exchange of feelings

In the old park, deserted in the frost
A while ago two shapes came drifting past.

Their eyes have died, their lips become so weak
That you can hardly hear a word they speak.

In the old park, deserted in the frost,
A ghost was reminiscing to a ghost.

- Can you recall our ecstasy of long ago?
- Why stir the memory? Why do you want to know?

- Does your heart still beat at just my name, as ever?
Do you still see my spirit in your dreams? - No. Never.

- O lovely days of speechless happiness
When our mouths met! - Speechless? Perhaps it was.

- How blue the sky was and what hopes we had!
- Hope ran away to the black sky, defeated.

So they walk on in the self-seeding grass
With only night to hear them as they pass.