Autumn Song 

 by Paul Verlaine 

When a signing begins 

In the violins 

Of the autumn song, 

My heart is drowned 

In the slow sound 

Languorous and long 

Pale as with pain, 

Breath fails me when 

The hours toll deep. 

My thoughts recover 

The days that are over, 

 And I weep. 

And I go, 

Where the winds know, 

Broken and brief, 

To and fro, 

As the winds blow 

A dead leaf.