You Are with Me

Talk of the Heart

You Are with Me

You are with me, in the light's drowsing, and in its spreading forth,
I carry you as an offering... fragrant with orange-blossom water!
What do I care if the distance stretches long, if coldness casts me off —
perhaps you have an excuse, my beloved!

You are with me, in the beating of my blood, and in my stillness!
What storm is this that dares against you,
when your roots run through the ravines of my heart, across the years?..

I loved you before you came to be,
and your absence — I lived with it an age, and companioned it an age,
and in my mind, of you — how wondrous they are! — visions surge with tender remembrance!
Has not longing, when it mounts, a tremor of blazing fire?
And what is love worth, if it is all alike?
As though all mankind were equal in loftiness??

Have I forgotten you? Have I truly forgotten you?
You are with me, my beloved,
and I shall carry you, as long as I live, an offering,
... fragrant with orange-blossom water!