Bocage - Life and Works

If it is sweet beneath a pleasant sky
in early summer, to watch the morning dress
In fleeting flowers, and watch a stream caress
Green banks and lick its sands, as it slips by:

If it is sweet to hear from restless lovers,
With verses modulating, and their ardors,
Among the deep and shady orchard's odors,
Their innocent defiance of all others:

If it is sweet when sea and sky are seen
Dyed, indigo by Love’s beloved rhymes
that waken hearts and turn rich meadows green:

Tis sweeter yet to see you, vanquished by my cries,
To give myself unto your swooning eyes,
Oh Death, loves death, far better than life’s lies.

Read more about the portuguese poet Manuel Maria l’Hedois de Barbosa du Bocage (1765-1805), his life and works, here.