Yet let that small consolation live on

Will you speak truly, with memory clear?
Will you ask for what you need when the heart calls?
If ever necessity comes, will you ask in time for all you require...
Without hesitation or doubt? Will you truly take?
If ever again you find yourself in sorrow,
if nothing goes right on any given day, then
will you give me the chance to gather you close?
Will you tell me of your pain? Say what you need?
Will you trust me?


Then give me this once a chance,
just one excuse to wrap myself around you and live!
A little opportunity to keep you safe...
to pour all my love and bind you in tenderness!
This chance—give me the wonderful opportunity to know you, understand you, learn you!
You think you know me so well...don't you?
How I truly am—tell me honestly, what do you know of it?
You wound me yourself from all sides...
How deep it goes, only my maker knows!


Will you give it, tell me?
In moments of anguish will you let me hold you close, shield you from pain?
Will you one day scold me terribly?
If I do something wrong, if absent-minded I say some wrong thing,
that day don't tell me again that whatever I have, it's all just love!
Wrong is wrong—what does it matter what kind of wrong?
Will you scold me fiercely until I cry myself senseless?
Then take me back again, stopping my tears, into that chest of yours?


You explained it so well—
that from within you, love
must be clawed out with fingernails!
How else would I ever get you?
Who ever got so much by doing nothing?
That day you called me such a big cat,
come home this evening when dusk falls,
leaving the day's exhaustion behind,
untying your tie from your collar,
I'll bind your hands tight with determination,
holding you close all evening long, then say...
Listen here, sir, when will you give yesterday's love?
A little now, half later,
this time I'll give, next time I'll give...this way you're doing quite well!
Every day I see with what excuses you smuggle
this home's happiness to another house!
Did you think I know nothing of these affairs?


Taking that hoarded love bit by bit, giving half,
leaving me destitute on the street,
did you think you'd become king of the forest alone?
Listen, you who think yourself such a brave man, such a prince...
You've stepped into deep water—why not wet your head too?
Is it so simple? Only if I let it be!
And all that fake love of yours,
just serve it up to your boss...
lest your job run away!


I hold the sky in one hand,
earth in the other,
when I say 'I love,'
all of it is pure.
What have you received?
You still don't know me,
don't know what I am!
Whatever catches my fancy,
whatever it is, if it's needed,
I simply take it, sir!
Who asks whom about such things!


If you move love's debts
even slightly this way or that,
I'll hurl all the kitchen dishes,
whatever I can reach, I'll throw it all away!
Look how well you've learned to cheat,
mastered every trick to deceive me!
Only when you give completeness do I become complete,
now only you exist within me—where am I in all this?


When the waves bring again
someone empty like me,
will they be able to become me so easily?
Will they sit like me, spreading such a seat of love?
You think, what bliss, ah!
I say, wait...don't be so hasty!
I'm keeping watch, ready to sweep away
anyone who comes to my house seeking shelter!