O Our Sea!

Talk of the Heart

O sea!
Our blue sea,
You are the first to come to me every dawn,
Outstretched as far as the eye can see,
A symbol of grandeur and everlasting majesty.

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I love you in winter,
Wrestling the torrents and the tempests,
Tossing out your streaming tresses, raging, mad —
What care binds your brow, what anger
Turns your far-flung world upside down?
You are the reckless bully who heeds not and spares not,
You raise up mountains and hurl them down,
You surge and froth and boil,
Knowing nothing, seeing nothing, hearing nothing,
In darkness or in light!

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And in spring I love you, O sea,
Mirror of lovers in their trim wooden boats,
Gently you play with their lovesick shadows,
You keep the whispers of their secrets,
And set the songs of their longing to music;
You are their faithful companion
Until the morning star grows drowsy and sleeps!

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And I love you in summer,
A wide breast where they take shelter,
Those weary of heat and tedium;
You turn their heat to freshness, their tedium to gladness and cheer.
At your bare feet they play and they wound,
And you carry the load of their cares... far away,
To the red line of the horizon!

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And in autumn I love you, our sea,
Serene and proud in the luxury of pure blue.
God! What master artist
Brushed your face with the color of clear turquoise?
The east wind courts you, and you bend and coquet
With all the power of coquetry the beautiful possess,
Till it seems all loveliness has gathered in you alone!

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I love you, O sea,
And beautiful you are always;
But in autumn
You are, in my eyes, the loveliest,
O our blue sea!