Love's Treacherous Pool (Poem by Victor Hugo)

Love's Treacherous Pool

By Victor Hugo

Young maiden, true love is a pool all mirroring clear,

    Where coquettish girls come to linger in long delight,

For it banishes afar from the face all the clouds that besmear

        The soul truly bright;

But tempts you to ruffle its surface; drawing your foot

    To subtilest sinking! and farther and farther the brink

That vainly you snatch — for repentance, 'tis weed without root, — 

        And struggling, you sink!