The time I've spent dreaming--- Years and years of my life ! Ah, how much of my past was only the false life of a future I imagined !

Here on the bank of the river
I grow calm for no reason.
Its empty flowing mirrors,
Cold and anonymous,
The life I've lived in vain.

How little hope ever attains !
What longing is worth the wait ?
Any child's ball
Rises higher than my hope,
Rolls farther than my longing.

Waves of the river, so slight
That you aren't even waves,
The hours, days and years
Pass quickly---mere grass or snow
Which die by the same sun.

I spent all I didn't have.
I'm older than I am.
The illusion that kept me going
Was a queen only on stage;
Once undressed, her reign was over.

Take me, passing waves,
To the oblivion of the sea !
Bequeath me to what I won't be---
I, who raised a scaffold
Around the house I never build.