Claire de Lune by Paul Verlaine

 Happy 2013, I wish you all moonlight dreamers a beautiful new year! Well, 2010 was health wise challenging. The end of 2011 was apocalyptic. I did spend 2012 holding my breath afraid of what might happen next. Well...life happened like  always... when you planned something else!! So Hello 2013, I am finally ready to inhale life and exhale my fears.
Take this poem of Paul Verlaine as a gift for this new year together!!!

                        Claire De Lune


Your soul is as a moonlit landscape fair,
   Peopled with maskers delicate and dim,
That play on lutes and dance and have an air
   Of being sad in their fantastic trim.

The while they celebrate in minor strain
   Triumphant love, effective enterprise,
They have an air of knowing all is vain,—
   And through the quiet moonlight their songs rise,

The melancholy moonlight, sweet and lone,
   That makes to dream the birds upon the tree,
And in their polished basins of white stone
   The fountains tall to sob with ecstasy.

translation by Gertrude Hall

                            Original French

 Votre âme est un paysage choisi
Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques
Jouant du luth et dansant et quasi
Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques.

Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur
L'amour vainqueur et la vie opportune
Ils n'ont pas l'air de croire à leur bonheur
Et leur chanson se mêle au clair de lune,

Au calme clair de lune triste et beau,
Qui fait rêver les oiseaux dans les arbres
Et sangloter d'extase les jets d'eau,
Les grands jets d'eau sveltes parmi les marbres

I should translate the poem myself just to adjust the flow. Verlaine has a musical flow that perfectly describes what you feel but cannot express when confused. In my opinion  this poem is about  simply surrendering to hope.

Same moonlight for our dreams...