Walden conclusion

I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favour in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the licence of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, you work need not to be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. Henry D. Thoreau, in Walden, p 288.

While I'm finishing read Walden I've found online some nature pictures that are true inspirations.

 

Edition by rollip

Conversa Sentimental

 No velho parque deserto e gelado

Duas formas passaram há bocado.

Com os olhos mortos e os lábios moles,
Mal se ouvem, a custo, as suas vozes.

No velho parque deserto e gelado
Dois espectros evocaram o passado.

— Recordas-te do nosso êxtase antigo?
— Por que razão acha que ainda consigo?

— Bate, ao ouvires meu nome, o coração?
Vês ainda a minha alma em sonhos? — Não.

— Ah! bons tempos de prazer indizível
Unindo as nossas bocas! — É possível.

— Como era azul, o céu, e grande a esperança!
— Mas é prò negro céu que hoje se lança.

Lá caminhavam pelas aveias loucas
E só a noite ouviu as suas bocas.

Paul Verlaine, in "Festas Galantes"
*Obrigada Fernando Pinto do Amaral pela tradução

 //

(Colloque sentimental se situe à la fin de Fêtes Galantes)

Dans le vieux parc solitaire et glacé,

Deux formes ont tout à l'heure passé.

Leurs yeux sont morts et leurs lèvres sont molles,

Et l'on entend à peine leurs paroles.

Dans le vieux parc solitaire et glacé,

Deux spectres ont évoqué le passé.

- Te souvient-il de notre extase ancienne ?

- Pourquoi voulez-vous donc qu'il m'en souvienne ?

- Ton cœur bat-il toujours à mon seul nom ?

Toujours vois-tu mon âme en rêve ? - Non.

- Ah ! les beaux jours de bonheur indicible

Où nous joignions nos bouches ! - C'est possible.

- Qu'il était bleu, le ciel, et grand, l'espoir !

- L'espoir a fui, vaincu, vers le ciel noir.

Tels ils marchaient dans les avoines folles,

Et la nuit seule entendit leurs paroles.

 

Oh nature!

they are too pure to have a market value; they contain no muck. how much more beautiful than our lives, how much more transparent than our characters, are they! we never learned meanness of them. T.