« One day, jealous time, with icy breath,
Will fade your colors like a faded flower
On these beds of grass;
And its hand will wither on your charming lips
Those quick kisses, alas! from which you wean me
In their fresh season.
But when your eyes, veiled by a cloud of tears,
Of those days gone by that have robbed you of your charms
Will weep the harshness;
When in your memory, in the wave of the shore
You will seek in vain your ravishing image,
Look into my heart!
There your beauty blooms for countless centuries;
There your sweet memory watches forever over the shadow
Of my fidelity,
Like a golden lamp that a holy virgin
Protects with her hand, crossing the enclosure,
The trembling light.
And when death comes, followed by another love,
Smilingly extinguish our double life
Both torch,
May she spread my bed next to yours,
And may your faithful hand still embrace mine
In the bed of the tomb.
Or rather may we pass over this earth,
As one sees in autumn a solitary couple
Of swans in love
Leaving, embracing, from the nest that brings them together,
And towards the sweet climates that they will seek together
Flying away two by two. » (Alphonse de Lamartine)