Haikais

You laughed while I wept,Yet my tears and your laughterHad only one source.

Yes! I was startled,For I saw there beside youLove's apparition!

Our lips spoke no word,Yet we talked long together,Eye answering eye.

The music fills meWith passionate yearnings—Where art thou, loved one?

Passion of laughterConvulsed me, but then followedPassion of weeping.

'Twas winter weatherWhen yon bloomed forth before me—Then summer flourished!

Beauty's in all things!Mom is lovely, but alsoLovely the night is.

The snow fell and robedLondon's great guilty cityIn purity's garb.

I heard my love sing:She knew not that I heard her,Nor saw how I trembled.

Sunshine or tempest,Desperation or triumph,Come at her summons!

O my beloved one!My tears flow when I think thatMortal our love is!

Ah! what a fragment,Though to fourscore extended,The life of a man is!