Les Passantes

I want to dedicate this poem
To all the women we love
For a few secret moments
To those we barely know
Whose different destiny leads them
And whom we never find again
To the one we see appear

For a second at her window
And who, quick, vanishes
But whose slender silhouette
Is so graceful and slender
That it leaves us elated
To the travel companion
Whose eyes, charming landscape
Make the journey seem short
That we alone, perhaps, understand
And yet let slip away
Without even touching her hand

To those who are already taken
And who, living through gray hours
Near someone too different
Have, useless folly
Let you see the melancholy
Of a despairing future
Dear glimpsed images
Hopes disappointed in a day
You will be forgotten tomorrow
If happiness comes
It is rare to remember
The episodes of the journey
But if one has missed their life
They think with a little envy
Of all those glimpsed happinesses
Of the kisses not dared to take
Of the hearts that must be waiting for you
Of the eyes never seen again

So, in evenings of weariness
While populating one's solitude
With the ghosts of memory
One weeps for the absent lips
Of all those beautiful passersby
That one did not know how to keep