LYRICAL EXCERPTS
1
The shower has sped away. The sky is brightening.
The cloud has sunk behind the mountain range.
Yet Nature's still excited over the rainstorm
And telling stories that are wondrous strange.
The sparkling silver droplets chase each other
To slip from off the branches and the leaves,
And soaring high into the sky delighted
The hawk inhales the cool and bracing breeze.
A streamlet runs and rings on every pathway,
The swaying rye in fields looks so demur,
Along the riverside the whispering rushes
Have suddenly turned greener as it were.
The lovely roses smile and look the younger
For gazing at the clear blue firmament…
A gosling waddles to a rain-made puddle
To swim and romp to his little heart's content.
2
You were so gay, so joyous, singing, laughing,
As we walked through the copse together, you and I.
The copse came to an end… and there, our pathways parting,
You said, your hand in mine: "I wish you luck, goodbye".
Not for a second did your eyes turn from the highway,
As though a waiting train beckoned you to go.
"Farewell, dear Friend, farewell, "We'll write each other, promise!"
We promised. Well, I wonder… Only time will show!…
3
A flower that joys in the rays of the sun,
I've fallen madly in love with you.
Well though I know that I'm not the first-
Many your gaze has lured.
How many flowers the Sun, though alone,
Endows with the heat of its ardent rays!…
Be that as it may, yet I can't but own,
I'm jealous of all the rest.
And if the world's riches should cease to be,
If suddenly all things should perish and die,
As always the two of us still would remain:
The glory that's you … and I.
4
The night was black and sombre. In a torment,
I waited for you by the river bank.
Unceasingly of you the teeming rushes
In reverie kept up a chant.
The birds had started singing in the bushes;
And as the breeze sent ripples o'er the lake
I saw the dawn come blushing…
5
I love you without second thoughts or prompting,
With all the compelling force of a dream,
Didn't I give you my heart without stinting
When love you returned for my love and esteem?
Now is there anything I've been concealing?
In what have I sinned? Wherein lies my fault?
Believe me, to you I've entrusted my feelings,
Without reservations, once and for all.
May friendship and love that are pure and tender
Reward us with happiness and with good cheer.
And may they dispel in your heart all your trouble
And dry on your lashes the dreary tears!
1936-1939
