THE PASSIONS by: Maurice Maeterlinck ARROW paths my passions tread: Laughter rings there, sorrow cries; Sick and sad, with half-shut eyes, Thro' the leaves the woods have shed, My sins like yellow mongrels slink; Uncouth hyenas, my hates complain, And on the pale and listless plain Couching low, love's lion's blink. Powerless, deep in a dream of peace, Sunk in a languid spell they lie, Under a colourless, desolate sky, There they gaze and never cease, Where like sheep temptations graze, One by one departing slow: In the moon's unchanging glow My unchanging passions gaze. This English translation of 'The Passions' is reprinted from Poems by Maurice Maeterlinck . Trans. Bernard Miall. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1915. MORE POEMS BY MAETERLINCK