University of Virginia Library

SMETANA.

RÊVE IN E (AU SALON).

ALL night through the dance and its mazes we swayed:
The folk murmured round us, I knew not of what;
A dream was upon me; I heeded them not,
As I lay in the arms of that loveliest maid.
The wind of the night in her tresses there played;
The stars through the casements their rays on us shot,
As we danced on together, the world all forgot,
To the music the flutes and the violins made.
Through orange-groves gleaming with flowerage and fruit
We floated, we twain, whilst, around and above,
The horn-notes, that blent with the voice of the flute,
Still mimicked the moan of the murmurous dove.
Had the flute-notes not failed and the horns fallen mute,
We had danced on for ever, myself and my love.