C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Mandoline
By Paul Verlaine (18441896)
Translation of Gertrude Hall
T
The beauteous listeners,
Sit idling ’neath the branches;
A balmy zephyr stirs.
Clitandre,—ever there!—
Damis, of melting sonnets
To many a frosty fair.
Their fine beflowered coats,
Their elegance and lightness,
And shadows blue,—all floats
In moonlight opaline,
While through the zephyr’s harping
Tinkles the mandoline.