The Initiation of Longing

If I should touch you suddenly, without warning,
If I should want you near for no reason at all,
If I should call your name again and again until my voice runs dry and I leave you restless,
Would you say then that in everything I do there's far too much excess?
Or would you say, come a little closer this time?

If love should descend in solitude, bearing only your name,
If in the endless returning of fondness I should find only you,
If I should fall intoxicated, drowning so soon in you alone,
Would you say that day that in my everything-everything there's such shamelessness!
Or would you say, let there be a little more pull, more longing!

If I should lose you and search alone through this city,
If as a devotee I should worship the worshipped god, placing you there alone,
If in lost melodies I should weave song's magic-tale to hold you there alone,
Would you say then that from beginning to end I'm nothing but senseless madness?
Or would you say, let me love my little madwoman a little more?