One kiss from all others prevents me,
And sets all my pulses astir,
And burns on my lips and torments me:
’Tis the kiss that I fain would give her.
One kiss for all others requites me,
Although it is never to be,
And sweetens my dreams and invites me:
’Tis the kiss that she dare not give me.
Ah, could it be mine, it were sweeter
Than honey bees garner in dream,
Though its bliss on my lips were fleeter
Than a swallow’s dip to the stream.
And yet, thus denied, it can never
In the prose of life vanish away;
O’er my lips it must hover forever,
The sunshine and shade of my day.
THE BROKEN TRYST.
Walking alone where we walked together,
When June was breezy and blue,
I watch in the gray autumnal weather
The leaves fall inconstant as you.
If a dead leaf startle behind me,
I think ’tis your garment’s hem,
And, oh, where no memory could find me,
Might I whirl away with them!
CASA SIN ALMA.
RECUERDO DE MADRID.
Silencioso por la puerta
Voy de su casa desierta
Do siempre feliz entré,
Y la encuentro en vano abierta
Cual la boca de una muerta
Despues que el alma se fué.