The Consolation of the Estranged

1. I am that restlessness that taught even rain the language of burning.

2. Love is not faith; love is the eternal transgression.

3. The fragrance that rises from my body is the ordeal by fire of my own tears.

4. So many years have passed, I have grown old, and you—you remain new!

5. A thousand days have withered in waiting to touch the radiance of a single moment! Do you know that burning? Do you keep watch over my tears? What do you know! What do you know!

6. Remember this day; I will not return, write it down! Console yourself, tell yourself that even in separation, only I will remain—see if it is so!

7. Fate has rendered its judgment: we shall never be together again.

8. Only hold fast to patience; patience alone is victory; all else is defeat.

9. Never write a verse that cannot make people weep.

10. I was bound when you were free; and yet look—now that I am free, I could not chain you in the bonds of captivity!