If My Verses Had the Wings
from: Contemplations by Victor Hugo
Translated by: Henry Carrington

Songs as sweet as summer brings,
To your flowery lawn should fly
If my verses had the wings--
Wings of birds that haunt the sky.

Like the spark that upward springs,
They would seek your smiling hearth,
If my verses had the wings--
Wings such as a spirth hath.

Near you, close as ivy clings,
They would dwell by night and day
If my verses had the wings--
Wings like love to speed the way.
Paris, March 18__