"Since love first made the breast an instrument
Of fierce lamenting, by its flame my heart
Was molten to a mirror, like a rose
I pluck my breast apart, that I may hang
This mirror in your sight
Gaze you therein."

What avails love when life is so ephemeral?
What avaiIs a mortal’s love for the immortal?

Love that is snuffed out by death’s passing blast
Love without the pain, the passion that consumes?

A flickering spark I am, aglow for a fleeting glance
Flow vain for a flickering spark to chase an eternal flame!

Grant me the bliss of eternal life, O Lord,
And mine will be the ecstasy of eternal love.

Give me the pleasure of an everlasting pain
An agony that lacerates my soul for ever.

What avails love when life is so ephemeral?What avaiIs a mortal’s love for the immortal?Love that is snuffed out by death’s passing blastLove without the pain, the passion that consumes?A flickering spark I am, aglow for a fleeting glanceFlow vain for a flickering spark to chase an eternal flame!Grant me the bliss of eternal life, O Lord,And mine will be the ecstasy of eternal love.Give me the pleasure of an everlasting painAn agony that lacerates my soul for ever.

Arise, and soar with the sun’s new-born rays,
To breathe new life into dying nights and days.

Arise, and soar with the sun’s new-born rays,To breathe new life into dying nights and days.

But only a brief moment
is granted to the brave
one breath or two, whose wage is
The long nights of the grave.