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I IF I had known how narrow a prison is love, | |
| Never would I have given the width of the skies | |
| In return for thy kiss, O Curithir, thou my grief! | |
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| If I had known love’s poverty, I would have given | |
| Dúns and forests and ploughlands and begged my bread: | 5 |
| For now I have lost the earth and the stars and my soul. | |
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| If I had known the strength of love, I would have laid | |
| The ridge of the world in ashes to stay his feet: | |
| I would have cried on a stronger lord—on Death. | |
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II I, that was wont to pass by all unmoved | 10 |
| As the long ridge of the tide sweeps to the shore, | |
| Am broken at last on the crags of a pitiless love. | |
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| I, who was wont to see men pale at my glance, | |
| Like the quivering grass am shaken beneath thine eyes; | |
| At thy touch my spirit is captive, my will is lost. | 15 |
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| I would darken the sun and moon to break from thy love, | |
| I would shatter the world to win thee again to my side. | |
| O aching madness of love! Have the dead repose? | |
| Or wilt thou tear my heart in the close-shut grave? | |
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III I have done with blame, I have risen from the cold earth | 20 |
| Where night and day my forehead has known the clay. | |
| With faltering steps I have passed out to the sun. | |
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| Now in the sight of all I stand, that all may know | |
| (For I myself will praise thee and prove their words) | |
| How great was thy wisdom in turning away from me. | 25 |
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| Who that has drunken wine will keep the lees? | |
| Who that has slain a man will wait for revenge? | |
| Who that has had his desire of a woman will stay? | |
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| Farewell, O Curithir, let thy soul be saved! | |
| I have not found a thing that is dearer to thee. | 30 |
| In the eyes of God is it priceless? Who can say! | |
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| My soul is a thing of little worth unto God: | |
| Of less worth unto thee, O Curithir, than my love. | |
| And unto me so small I flung it beneath thy feet. | |
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IV If the dark earth hold a Power that is not God | 35 |
| I pray It to bind up memory lest I die. | |
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| There was a day when Curithir loved me, now it is gone. | |
| It was I that sundered his love from me, I myself; | |
| Or it was God who struck me with madness and mocked. | |
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| If the dark earth hold a Power that is not God | 40 |
| I pray It to hide me for ever away from His face. | |
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V All things are outworn now—grief is dead, | |
| And passion has fallen from me like a withered leaf. | |
| Little it were to me now though Curithir were beside me: | |
| Though he should pass I would not turn my head. | 45 |
| My heart is like a stone in my body. | |
| All I have grasped I loose again from my hands. | |
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