last hope

• paul verlaine’nin en güzel şiirlerinden biri.
  sembolleri okyanuslar kadar derindir.
  
  beside a humble stone, a tree
  floats in the cemetery’s air,
  not planted in memoriam there,
  but growing wild, uncultured, free.
  
  a bird comes perching there to sing,
  winter and summer, proffering
  ıts faithful song—sad, bittersweet.
  that tree, that bird are you and ı:
  
  you, memory; absence, me, that tide
  and time record. ah, by your side
  to live again, undying! aye,
  
  to live again! but ma petite,
  now nothingness, cold, owns my flesh. . .
  will your love keep my memory fresh?