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O Dog of Mine
O dog of mine! Only God can measure
The distance between us on the scale of life
between your instinct and your master's soul;
He only understands that strange affinity
By which you see through your master's eyes and even die
- His death; He knows too that pity for the broken-hearted
- His gift to you, who go on loving
Those that no one else can love.
Never poor beast that lies there on the ground,
Has my foot spurned you with ignorant disdain;
Never with brutal word embittering your love
Has my heart turned from your caressing touch.
But always and ever in you I have honoured
The boundless goodness of your Lord and mine,-
Just as we honour those the least of all His creatures, brothers with
a closeness Nature wills.
Ah, poor my Fido, when your eyes meet mine,
Silence can understand our wordless speech;
When, as you lie beside my bed gazing to see
If I am still alive, and when a single changing breath
Wakes you; when reading sadness in my darkened eyes
You search my forehead for those lines of care,
And gently take between your teeth my offered hand
To chase away my melancholy thoughts;
When like a clear mirror, my sorrow or my joy
Bring to your loving eyes anxiety or calm,
So that the soul in you is clearly seen
And your love quite surpasses mere intelligence;
No, you are more than an allusion of a soul,
More than a mocking imitation of humanity,
More than a body responding to my touch.
More than a mere machine of life and love.
No,
when the love that lights up in your eyes goes out,
It will come back to life somehow, somewhere in heaven.
That man or beast, who loves with such a tender sympathy,
Can never die or be extinct for ever.
God shatters for a moment, only to make whole.
For His embrace is wide enough to hold us all
And we will love each other as we loved in life.
What matters souls or instincts in His sight?
Wherever friendship consecrates a loving heart,
Wherever Nature lights the flame of love,
There God will not snuff out his divine spark
Not in the splendour of a night star's blaze
Nor in a humble spaniel's loving gaze.
by Alphonse de Lamartine
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