The Roses of the Gardens of Adonis


The roses of the gardens of Adonis
Are what I love, Lydia, those flitting roses
    That in the day when they are born,
           Within that day, die.

The light's for them eternal, because they
Are born with the sun born already, and sink
    Before Apollo may yet leave
        The visible course he has.

Like them, let us make of our lives one day, -
Voluntarily, Lydia, unknowing
    That there is night before and after
        The little that we last.



- Fernando Pessoa