Vorrei- I Would Like

I would like, now that you are pale and silent,
with your head in your hands, bent in thought
And on your dejected soul shine
The vain dreams and immense desires

I would like, through the enchantment of love,
Quietly to return at your call,
And, bending over you like a flower,
In a sweet voice whisper, I love you!

I would like, with all my loose tresses
To enfold you with slow caresses,
And to hear you call my name
To see you crazed by my beauty.

L’ultimo bacio- The Last Kiss

If you see him, tell him I love him,
Just as I did in the early days.
In languid dreams, I still call out his name,
I call as if he were still here.

And tell him that, even with betrayed faith,
The joy of that time is not taken from me;
And tell him that it is enough for my life,
That last kiss that ended in farewell!

No one takes it from my lips,
That last kiss that ended in farewell.
But if you wish to give him another in company,
Tell him that I love him and I wait here for him.

Romance- The spent and suffering soul

The spent and suffering soul,
The sweet soul, the soul steeped
In the divine lilies I gathered
In the garden of your thoughts,
Where have the winds dispersed it,
This adorable lilies’ soul?

Does not a single scent remain
Of the heavenly softness
Of the days when you enclosed me
In a supernatural mist,
Made of hope, of faithful love,
Of bliss and of peace?

Aimons-nous- Let us Love

Let us love and sleep
Without a care for the rest of the world!
Neither ocean waves not mountain storms,
While we still love each other,
Can bow your golden head,
For love is more powerful
Than gods and death!

The sun would extinguish its rays
To make your purity more pure,
The wind which inclines to earth the forest
Would not in passing dare
To frolic with your hair,
While you nestle
Your head in my arms.

And when our two hearts
Shall ascend to paradise,
Where celestial lilies shall open beneath our tears,
Then, like flowers,
Let us join our loving lips
And strive to exhaust
Death in a kiss!

Die Nacht- Night

Night steps from the woods,
Slips softly from the trees,
Gazes about her in a wide arc,
Now beware!

All the lights of this world,
All the flowers, all the colours
She extinguishes and steals the sheaves
From the field.

She takes all that is fair,
Takes the silver from the stream,
Takes from the cathedral’s copper roof
The gold.

The bush stands plundered:
Draw closer, soul to soul,
Ah the night, I fear, will steal
You too from me.

Die Mainacht- May Night

When the silvery moon gleams through the bushes,
And sheds its slumbering light on the grass,
And the nightingale is fluting,
I wander sadly from bush to bush.

Covered by leaves, a pair of doves
Coo to me their ecstasy; but I turn away,
Seek darker shadows,
And the lonely tear flows down.

When, O smiling vision, that shines through my soul
Like the red of dawn, shall I find you here on earth?
And the lonely tear
Quivers more ardently down my cheek.

Aufenthalt- Resting Place

Roaring river
Rustling forest
Fixed rock
My resting place.

Just as waves
Follow waves,
My tears flow
Endlessly renewed

High in the treetops
There is a swaying movement,
In the same way incessantly
My heart is beating.

And like the rock’s
Primeval ore,
Forever the same
My pain endures.