And in a delirium of ecstatic joy,
My being heaved and heaved like the billows of an ocean roused from its rest,
As if the elements had loosened their festive whirlwinds in a game of life and death;
O love! O joy! Immortal bliss!
This was a kiss, a kiss!
That stirred the nerve fluids till they seemed like ruby wine aflame in my veins,
And he grew so tender and loving, that it was as if an abyss had swallowed us up in its mystic fold;
The hazardous past was forgotten,
Faded away from the hallowed now;
The present enough, O love’s tremulous ecstacy!