Song of the Heart's Chamber

You came as evening's scattered clouds,
I would have been that silver crescent — white foam,
all the stories we had to tell
I would have scattered, lost on distant starways!
Night would wake with sleepless eyes, and I with it.
 
The melancholy stars' fair laughs all night,
what intoxication in their wondering eyes,
the beloved's touch rides the wind toward us
awakening such lost thirst in the eye's tender leaves!
Absent-minded, I think — yet you are near,
two eyes say mockingly — no,
I know, yet love, yet stay awake,
still want you in faithful forgetting!
 
Will there be a cold moonlight? Will you give it to me?
Without that velvet coverlet I'll come
quietly — we two will revel in moonbath.
Shaking dew from fallen leaves' bodies,
washing feet in the cold night I'll become bereft,
trembling fiercely, and then —
you will come. The maple leaves will hum and dance then,
leaves will fall, I will fall,
all the flowers will laugh delightedly, see, with them you'll see me,
just so when the lotus pond spreads in my eyes,
your gaze will catch in my restless waiting.
 
So be it then! And after that?
When the moon grows naked, full,
my wild heart will dance on your chest,
inside me your blood will flow — warm and fierce!
Believe it, just as your mind's beloved comes in imagination,
I am exactly like that!
Just as you've made space in your heart's depths,
claiming me as your own,
I am exactly like that — take time and see for yourself!
 
How terribly foolish, isn't it, tell me?
Don't call those waiting eyes false,
how easily they bought your whole world
with clear eyes' and wet lips' magic,
with pure love's touch,
adorning all your broken shores,
raising what storms in the desert, dropping water through mountains —
are all these just wrong lies, bought and sold toys, and borrowed happiness?
Look —
even the day I am no more, even then those paired eyes will tell you falsely —
I'm still alive somehow, wonderfully so!
Believe me, I am exactly as you think I am!
 
Listen, won't you let me sit beside you a little?
Pressed close to you after bathing, I'd wrap your body's fragrance around this body — in this morning's gentle breeze.
This is how I love —
with tears, breaking ribs, digging up the heart!
Let the light go out, let darkness come, let peace flee however it will — still I love you!