You stepped up to the hearth

by Stefan George

You stepped up to the hearth
Where any blaze had died ·
Mere light fell on the earth
Corpse-pale the moon it dyed.

You dipped in that burnt ash
Your wan-white fingers in
To search to feel to catch –
Will it be light again!

Look what on solace’s path
The moon speaks of your fate:
Away step from that hearth ·
It is already late.

(Translated by Edward Viesel)

(From: Das Jahr der Seele [The Year of the Soul] (1897) – Traurige Tänze [Mournful Dances])

Note: The German original uses the second person plural throughout.

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