Voice of Woman

not yet permit it... And how often have I tried to convince them that I have become a young man — my mustache sprouted some time ago — but they insist that I am not yet mature. For I am at the age of adolescence, that dangerous age, as they say, which has so often hurled young people into the pits of destruction... I do not see this age as dangerous... I do not know how they see it...

I do not doubt for a moment that my parents love me... If I

fall ill, for instance, they summon the doctor at once, and pass the night awake, feeling my pulse and touching my forehead... But for all that they make no attempt to understand me... They do not grasp that a girl of my age has her own world, and her own opinions... They want me to bind myself to their world... the world

of the grown-ups... If I go out alone with my girl friends they open an 'inquest' on me and set about blaming me... If I express my wish to go to the cinema twice running in one week they voice their regret at this disgraceful conduct... Swimming, in my eyes, is an important sport; in theirs, it is not fitting for well-bred girls...

Worship - Talk of the Heart

They said: "Love is a flash of bliss;

it blazes up in a glow... then dims, and goes out."

I am certain..... my love for you is otherwise!

In it is something of the fire of longing, of the steadfastness of mountains, of the majesty of worshipful awe—

perhaps it is worship, my beloved!

•

Time itself may tire of the turning of day and night,

and our mother the earth may tire of the tickling of rain and sun,

... yet every meeting with you keeps its virgin joy!

What if, after a while, white hairs were to play about your head;

what if weariness were to spread over your face, and the furrows harden?

Would not the serenity of that gaze still be mine,

and the tender warmth in that smile?!

•

It pleased the woman to pour out her longings,

and she let fall her long lashes in an excess of coquetry—

the weariness of the song. Its refrains cry out,

and eagerly she presses her fingers upon the strong fingers...

•

In secret, out of her hearing,

mocking Fate... was laughing aloud!!