HERMANN AT MY SIDE

Nothing more, nothing less.
Dark was the night and the forest gloomy.
At my side Hermann was like a specter.
The horses galloping. May God guide them!
The clouds in the sky seemed like marble.
The stars flew among the tree tops
Like a flock of burning birds.

I am full of remorse. Broken by pain.
Hermann’s spirit has lost hope.
I am full of remorse. My loves, sleep!
As we traversed this green desert,
Hermann said to me: “I think of the half-open graves”;
“I think,” I replied to him, “Of the graves now closed”.

He looks forward and I look back,
The horses gallop through a clearing;
The wind carries the echo of a distant angelus
“I think of those whom existence afflicts.
Those who still are, those who still live.”
“I think,” I replied to him: “Of those who are dead”.

The fountains sang. What words did they sing?
The oaks murmured. What did they murmur?
The shrubs whispered like old friends.
Hermann said to me: “The living cannot sleep,
There are eyes that watch, there are eyes that weep.”
I replied to him: “And others lie asleep”.

Hermann then resumed: “Life is misfortune.
The dead no longer suffer. At last, they are at peace!
How I envy the graves covered with grass
On which autumn lets fall the leaves
And the night caresses with its sweet flames;
For the radiant sky calms all souls in every grave!”

I replied to him: “Silence, respect the great mystery!
The dead lie in the earth you tread.
The dead are the hearts that once loved you,
Your departed angel! They are your father and mother!
You must not sadden them with bitter irony.
As through a dream they hear us speak”.

NOTES
Head: Black Pepper, Galbanum, Blackcurrant Buds
Heart: Incense, Geosmin, Rose
Base: Vetiver, Patchouli, Ambroxan