LALILA, TO THE FERENGI LOVER
translated into English by: Laurence Hope (1865-1904)
- HY above others was I so blessed
- And honoured? to be the chosen one
- To hold you, sleeping, against my breast,
- As now I may hold your only son.
-
- Twelve months ago; that wonderful night!
- You gave your life to me in a kiss;
- Have I done well, for that past delight,
- In return, to have given you this?
- Look down at his face, your face, beloved,
- His eyes are azure as yours are blue.
- In every line of his form is proved
- How well I loved you, and only you.
- I felt the secret hope at my heart
- Turn suddenly to the living joy,
- And knew that your life in mine had part
- As golden grains in a brass alloy.
- And learning thus, that your child was mine,
- Thrilled by the sense of its stirring life,
- I held myself as a sacred shrine
- Afar from pleasure, and pain, and strife,
- That all unworthy I might not be
- Of that you had deigned to cause to dwell
- Hidden away in the heart of me,
- As white pearls hide in a dusky shell.
- Do you remember, when first you laid
- Your lips on mine, that enchanted night?
- My eyes were timid, my lips afraid,
- You seemed so slender and strangely white.
- I always trembled; the moments flew
- Swiftly to dawn that took you away,
- But this is a small and lovely you
- Content to rest in my arms all day.
- Oh, since you have sought me, Lord, for this,
- And given your only child to me,
- My life devoted to yours and his,
- Whilst I am living, will always be.
- And after death, through the long To Be,
- (Which, I think, must surely keep love's laws,)
- I, should you chance to have need of me,
- Am ever and always, only yours.
"Lalila, to the Ferengi Lover" is reprinted from India's Love Lyrics. Trans. Laurence Hope. New York: John Lane Co., 1906. |
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