Separation
To not forget our loving, should I a sign
implore?
I'd ask for you, but dearest, you are your
own no more.
Nor do I beg a flower from in your golden
hair;
Forgetfulness, beloved, is but my single prayer.
Oh, what a sad sensation, when joy that soon
did wane,
Not swift with it to vanish, but ever here
remain!
Down quite a different valley does that same
river fret;
The long and silent sameness of immutable
regret
When through this life to wander it has been
writ, it seem,
A dream made out of shadow, a shadow made
of dream.
From now in my existence what interest can
you hold?
Why should one count the ages that o'er the
dead are rolled?
No matter when I die, this or some later day,
My wish is out o'the mind of all to I pass
away,
And you forget the dream that our two hearts
endears.
When you look back, beloved, upon the faded
years,
Let in the depths of shadow my memory
be gone,
As though we midst our loving each other had
not known,
As though those hours of wonder in fact we
did not live.
That I so deeply love you dear one can you
forgive?
My face turned to the desert you left me all
alone
And cold beneath my eyelids my eyes have turned
to stone.
And when at last death's soil my body does
reclaim,
Then who on earth will know me or know from
whence I came?
A chant of lamentation within cold walls will
chime
To beg for me in weeping the peace of endless
time;
And I would fain that someone quite near to
me then came
To whisper to me softly, beloved one, your
name.
While then ... should they my body into the
gutter throw,
Still that would be far bitter than what I
suffer now.
Afar off in the distance a flock of crows
arise
And darken all the heavens before my sightless
eyes;
Beyond the earth's steep margin a hurricane
does start,
Flinging to the world my dust and to the wind
my heart.
Yet as in spring the blossom do you remain
the while,
With gentle eyes and humid, and tender childish
smile;
So much a child, yet seeming each day to younger
grow
And of my fate know nothing, as I too
nothing know.
English version by Corneliu M. Popescu
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