Love means a yearning that knows no rest, Love means to want and never possess.
If I had won you completely, would this fire still rage so fierce within my chest?
Had I claimed you, nights would have turned drowsy with sleep; in sleepless nights, poems wouldn't run so wild and free.
Had I claimed you, would you still fill my every corner of the world? What lives at home, does it linger in the heart? The one who shares your hearth becomes a stranger first!
But now, all people, cats, dogs… how dear they all seem to me! When you became distant, the whole world drew near!
Because you're not here, I've found you this much, had I truly won you, perhaps I wouldn't love you so! I'd never have noticed the mole on your left cheek; that furrow on your brow wouldn't seem so beautiful then.
Having you, I'd never have found such a devoted lover. Ah, how good it was not to have you, how very good!