Light within the Shade: Eight Hundred Years of Hungarian Poetry

Autumn Came to Paris

74 | Light within the Shade Autumn Came to Paris Autumn dropped in to Paris yesterday, Slipped along Saint-Michel so quietly —Though it was dog days under summer boughs— And there it met with me. Strolling toward the Seine I felt my soul Kindling with newborn songs in fiery breath; Smoky, strange ones, purple, melancholy, Each one about my death. Autumn caught up with me and whispered something, Saint-Michel quivered with it, and the leaves— Swish-swish!—flew helter-skelter on the street In pranks the Fall wind weaves. A moment only: summer scarcely flinched; Autumn fled Paris laughing in the breeze; It came, and only I knew that it came, Under the moaning trees. 1906 ...