Bound for your distant homeyou were leaving alien lands.
In an hour as sad as I’ve knownI wept over your hands.
My hands were numb and cold,still trying to restrainyou, whom my hurt toldnever to end this pain.
But you snatched your lips awayfrom our bitterest kiss.
You invoked another placethan the dismal exile of this.
You said, ‘When we meet again,in the shadow of olive-trees,we shall kiss, in a love without pain,under cloudless infinities.’ But there, alas, where the skyshines with blue radiance,where olive-tree shadows lieon the waters glittering dance,your beauty, your suffering,are lost in eternity.
But the sweet kiss of our meeting……I wait for it: you owe it me…….