For you mom

 

For you mom Giovanni Marradi

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Who sat and watched my infant head
When sleeping on my cradle bed,
And tears of sweet affection shed?
My Mother.

When pain and sickness made me cry,
Who gazed upon my heavy eye,
And wept for fear that I should die?
My Mother.

Who taught my infant lips to pray
And love God’s holy book and day,
And walk in wisdom’s pleasant way?
My Mother.

And can I ever cease to be
Affectionate and kind to thee,
Who wast so very kind to me,
My Mother?

Ah, no! the thought I cannot bear,
And if God please my life to spare
I hope I shall reward they care,
My Mother.

When thou art feeble, old and grey,
My healthy arm shall be thy stay,
And I will soothe thy pains away,
My Mother.

A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM

 

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow –
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;

 
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less _gone?_
_All_ that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

 
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand –
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!

 
О God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
О God! can I not save
_One from_ the pitiless wave?
Is _all_ that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

 

(1827-1849)

СОН ВО СНЕ

 

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