L'APRÈS-MIDI D'UN FAUNE
(From the French of Stéphane Mallarmé.)
I would immortalize these nymphs: so bright
Their sunlit colouring, so airy-light,
It floats like drowsing down. Loved I a dream?
My doubts, born of oblivious darkness, seem
A subtle tracery of branches grown
The tree's true self—proving that I have known
No triumph, but the shadow of a rose.
But think. These nymphs, their loveliness ... suppose