<h1>The Dark Blot</h1>

He who has gazed against the sun sees everywhere

he looks thereafter, palpitating on the air

before his eyes, a smudge that will not go away.

So in my days of still-youth, my audacity,

I dared look on the splendor momentarily.

The dark blot on my greedy eyes has come to stay.

Since when, worn like a badge of mourning in the sight

of all around me where my eye may chance to light,

I see the dark smudge settle upon everyone.

Forever thus between my happiness and me?

Alas for us, the eagle only, only he

can look, and not be hurt, on splendor and the sun. 

Gérard de Nerval

Translated by Richmond Lattimore