The long poem of 16 stanzas is structured in 3 parts: a first section of 5 stanzas (quatrains made of 3 alexandrines –12 foot verses– plus one 6 foot verse), followed by 4 stanzas of a different type (quatrains of one alexandrine verse alternating with a 6 foot verse), and then a last section of 7 stanzas of the initial type. The 16 stanzas have been reduced here to only 7 (3 plus 2 plus 2). It is a meditation on the transience of time, love and life.

Translation (AJ):

Thus, always pushed towards new shores, In the eternal night carried without return, Will we ever be able, on the ocean of the ages, To cast anchor for one single day?

O! lake, the year has scarcely finished its course, That, besides the beloved waters she was due to revisit, Behold! I come alone to sit on this rock Where you saw her sit!

One evening, do you remember? we were boating in silence; One could hear in the distance, on the waters and under the skies, Only the sound of the oarsmen who were hitting in cadence Your harmonious surface.

All of a sudden tones unknown to the earth Echoed on the spell-bound banks; The waters listen attentively, and the darling voice Dropped those words:

"O! time suspend your flight! and you, auspicious hours, Suspend your course! Let us relish the swift delights Of our most beautiful days.

"Let’s thus love, let’s thus love! The runaway hour Let’s hasten, let’s enjoy! Man has no harbour, time has no banks, It flows, and we go along!"

Oh lake, mute stones, grottoes, forest obscure! You that time spares or can rejuvenate, Will you keep of this night, fair nature, At least its souvenir?

May the wind that moans, the reed that sighs, May the light scents of thy balmy air, May all that we hear, see or breathe, All say: "They have loved!"