The Woman who Loves

Ah yes! I long for you. To you I glide
    And lose myself—for to you I belong.
    The hope that hitherto I have denied
    Imperious comes to me as from your side
    Serious, unfaltering and swift and strong.

    Those times: the times when I was quite alone
    By memories wrapt that whispered to me low,
    My silence was the quiet of a stone
    Over which rippling murmuring waters flow.

    But in these weeks of the awakening Spring
    Something within me has been freed—something
    That in the past dark years unconscious lay,
    Which rises now within me and commands
    And gives my poor warm life into your hands
    Who know not what I was that Yesterday.
        (tr. Jessie Lamont)