Under Mirabeau Bridge the river slips away

       And lovers

     Must I be reminded

Joy came always after pain

       The night is a clock chiming

       The days go by not I

We’re face to face and hand in hand

       While under the bridges

     Of embrace expire

Eternal tired tidal eyes

       The night is a clock chiming

       The days go by not I

Love elapses like the river

       Love goes by

     Poor life is indolent

And expectation always violent

       The night is a clock chiming

       The days go by not I

The days and equally the weeks elapse

       The past remains the past

     Love remains lost

Under Mirabeau Bridge the river slips away

       The night is a clock chiming

       The days go by not I

poem by Guillaume Apollinaire
translated by Donald Revell