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“Ailing Autumn” by Guillaume Apollinaire 🇫🇷 (26 Aug 18809 Nov 1918)
Translated from the French by & John Cobley
Autumn ailing and adored
You will die when the wind storm blows in rose gardens
When it snows
In orchards
Poor autumn
Dies in the whiteness and richness
Of snow and ripe fruit
Deep in the sky
The sparrow hawks glide
Above the tiny gentle green-haired water nymphs
Who have never loved
At the distant forest edges
Stags have been bellowing
And how I love O season how I love your murmurs
The fruits falling without being picked
The wind and the forest that weep
All their tears in autumn leaf by leaf
Leaves
That are trampled
A train
That passes
Life
That slips away