A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields/Man and the Sea (Charles Baudelaire)
MAN AND THE SEA.
Man, in thy freedom, thou shalt love always the ocean
As the mirror in which is reflected thy soul,
For its infinite depths—its waves in commotion,
Of thy spirit the phases, lay bare like a scroll.
To plunge in its waters thy bosom rejoices,
As to clasp a dear mother rejoices a child!
And thy heart ceases to hear its own inner voices,
At the sound of that voice unconquered and Wild.
O soul, in the shadow thou ever abidest,
Who has sounded thy depths, and who there may regard?
And thou sea, who knows of the riches thou hidest,
Or has seen the dread secrets of thy dark dungeon-ward?
The same temperaments! And yet through the ages
Fierce, pitiless, remorseless, between you is strife!
Carnage, death, havoc, seem the work and the wages!
Eternal gladiators!—Brothers grappling for life!