Your admirers remember, sometimes unwittingly,
man’s rude awakening to the pain which has never since left him.
Greetings, ancient ocean!
I suppose man believes in his beauty only because he is vain
and he suspects that he isn’t really beautiful.
Otherwise, why should he be so contemptuous of a face like his?
Greetings, ancient ocean!
Ocean, I have asked myself which is the easier to divine:
the depth of the ocean or the depth of the human heart.
I may say that despite the depth of the ocean,
it cannot be compared in this respect with the depth of the human heart.
Psychology has much to learn.
Greetings, ancient ocean!
Ancient ocean!
From your dark, mysterious depths you pulse your waves with all the
coolness of your eternal power.
Your moral grandeur, a reflection of infinity, as immense as philosophy’s reflections, like love of women, like the divine beauty of a bird.
Tell me, ancient ocean, will you be my brother?
Ignorant of your secret destiny, everything about you interests me.
Are you the abode of the Prince of Darkness?
Tell me, ocean. You must tell me, for I shall rejoice to know that
hell is so close to men.
So once more I wish to greet you, and bid my farewell.
Ancient ocean, I lack the power to continue, it is the moment to return
to the brutal land of men.
Let us make a supreme effort and, conscious of our duty, fulfill our
destiny on this earth.
Greetings, ancient ocean.