Poems / William Cullen Bryant [electronic text]

THE LOVE OF GOD. * 1.1

(FROM THE PROVENSAL OF BERNARD RASCAS.)

ALL things that are on earth shall wholly pass away, Except the love of God, which shall live and last for aye. The forms of men shall be as they had never been; The blasted groves shall lose their fresh and tender green; The birds of the thicket shall end their pleasant song, And the nightingale shall cease to chant the evening long. The kine of the pasture shall feel the dart that kills, And all the fair white flocks shall perish from the hills. The goat and antlered stag, the wolf and the fox, The wild-boar of the wood, and the chamois of the rocks, And the strong and fearless bear, in the trodden dust shall lie; And the dolphin of the sea, and the mighty whale, shall die. And realms shall be dissolved, and empires be no more, And they shall bow to death, who ruled from shore to shore; And the great globe itself (so the holy writings tell), With the rolling firmament, where the starry armies dwell, Shall melt with fervent heat—they shall all pass away, Except the love of God, which shall live and last for aye.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The original of these lines is thus given by John of Nostradamus, in his lives of the Troubadours, in a barbarous Frenchified orthography:—

  Touta kausa mortala una fes perirá,Fors que l'amour de Dieu, que tousiours durará.Tous nostres cors vendran essuchs, coma fa l'eska,Lous Aubres leyssaran lour verdour tendra e fresca,Lous Auselets del bosc perdran lour kant subtyeu,E non s'auzira plus lou Rossignol gentyeu.Lous Buols al Pastourgage, e las blankas fedettasSent'ran lous agulhons de las mortals Sagettas,Lous crestas d'Arles fiers, Renards, e Loups espars,Kabrols, Cervys, Chamous, Senglars de toutes pars,Lous Ours hardys e forts, seran poudra, e Arena,Lou Daulphin en la Mar, lou Ton, e la Balena,Monstres impetuous, Ryaumes, e Comtas,Lous Princes, e lous Reys, seran per mort domtas.E nota ben eysso káscun: la Terra granda,(Ou l'Escritura ment) lou fermament que branda,Prendra autra figura. Enfin tout perirá,Fors que l'Amour de Dieu, que touiour durará.