The Lake (1820), st. 8
“The blackest night must end in dawn, the light dispel the dreamer's fear.”
“It is said that the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.”
Source: The Alchemist (1988), p. 132.
O guiding night! O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united the Lover with his beloved, transforming the beloved in her Lover.
Variant translation by Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez (1991)
Oh night thou was my guide
Oh night more loving than the rising sun
Oh night that joined the lover to the beloved one
transforming each of them into the other.
Variant adapted for music by Loreena McKennitt (1994)
Dark Night of the Soul
Part I
The City of Dreadful Night (1870–74)
“Ah! when shall it dawn on the night of the grave!”
The Hermit
“Of late the nights
are dawning
plum-blossom white.”
Japanese Death Poems. Compiled by Yoel Hoffmann. ISBN 978-0-8048-3179-6
