To Sarah
Eerste publicatie: Augustus 1835 (Southern Literary Messenger)
Annotatie: Gedicht was in de Southern Literary Messenger ondertekend met ‘Sylvio’. J. H. Whitty nam het later op in zijn Complete Poems (1911) al gaf hij eerlijk toe dat er geen zekerheid was over de auteur van het gedicht.
Vertalingen en bewerkingen:
1985: Voor Sarah (Edgar Allan Poe – gedichten, Wijnand Steemers)
TO SARAH
When melancholy and alone,
I sit on some moss-covered stone
Beside a murm’ring stream;
I think I hear thy voice’s sound
In every tuneful thing around,
Oh! what a pleasant dream.
The silvery streamlet gurgling on,
The mock-bird chirping on the thorn,
Remind me, love, of thee.
They seem to whisper thoughts of love,
As thou didst when the stars above
Witnessed thy vows to me; —
The gentle zephyr floating by,
In chorus to my pensive sigh,
Recalls the hour of bliss,
When from thy balmy lips I drew
Fragrance as sweet as Hermia’s dew,
And left the first fond kiss.
In such an hour, when are forgot,
The world, its cares, and my own lot,
Thou seemest then to be,
A gentle guarding spirit given
To guide my wandering thoughts to heaven,
If they should stray from thee.
