Improvisations Light And Snow 13

My heart is an old house, and in that forlorn old house,

In the very centre, dark and forgotten,

Is a locked room where an enchanted

Lies sleeping.

But sometimes, in that dark house,

As if almost from the stars, far away,

Sounds whisper in that secret room —Faint voices, music, a dying trill of laughter?

And suddenly, from her long sleep,

The beautiful princess awakes and dances.

Who is she?

I do not know.

Why does she dance?

Do not ask me! —Yet to-day, when I saw you,

When I saw your eyes troubled with the trouble of happiness,

And your mouth trembling into a smile,

And your fingers pull shyly forward, —Softly, in that room,

The little princess

And danced;

And as she danced the old house gravely

With its vague and delicious secret.