One peculiarity of Maeterlinck's which may at first confuse the English reader is only a simple convention. All poetry is full of similes; the simile confuses no one. If a poet tells us that his heart is like a singing-bird we do not seriously suppose him to mean that his heart has feathers and two legs; but merely that it possesses some other essential quality of a singing-bird. Now Maeterlinck constantly, in his verse, uses what is merely a modification of the simile, which has precisely the same significance, but which takes the form of a positive assertion of identity. He would say: My heart _is_ a singing-bird or a plant in a green-house, or anything else that seemed to be illuminating; and this apparent literalness of statement, which is carried very far, is, and must always be understood as, a mere variant of the familiar simile. IV A word as to the work of translation. Most of the lyrics in _Serres Chaudes_ are written in the metre familiar to English readers as that of "In Memoriam." It is, in English, rather a dull metre, the stanza being in reality no stanza at all, but merely a line of thirty-two syllables with interior rhymes. It is greatly improved and enlivened by the omission of four syllables, or rather by their replacement by pauses of one syllable's value. This change I have sometimes made; and in one case I have, in order to avoid a verbal obscurity, extended the line to ten syllables. Apart from these exceptions all the poems in this volume are translated into their original metres, and it has always been my first object to produce a literal, almost a word for word, translation. Whatever the faults of my version, it is strictly faithful. If I am deemed to have also preserved something of the beauty of the original I shall feel more than rewarded for a task that has presented many difficulties. BERNARD MIALL Ilfracombe, _September 1914_. CONTENTS Translator's Preface HOT-HOUSES THE HOT-HOUSE PRAYER THE HOUSE OF LASSITUDE TEMPTATIONS BELL-GLASSES THE HUMBLE OFFERING THE HEART'S FOLIAGE THE FEVERED SOUL THE SOUL LASSITUDE THE WEARY HUNTING THE PASSIONS PRAYER STAGNANT HOURS THE WHITE BIRDS THE HOSPITAL NIGHT PRAYER WINTRY DESIRES LISTLESSNESS AMEN THE DIVING BELL AQUARIUM THE BURNING-GLASS REFLECTIONS VISIONS PRAYER GLANCES VIGIL AFTERNOON THE SOUL INTENTIONS CONTACTS NIGHT FIFTEEN SONGS