Quivering woods, starry sky

Quivering woods, starry sky,

my beloved has gone away

taking with him my desolate heart!

Winds, may your plaintive noises,

charming nightingales, may your songs

go to tell him I'm dying!

From the first evening he came here

my soul was at his mercy.

I no longer cared about pride.

My eyes kept telling him my thoughts.

He took me in his nervous arms

and kissed my head close to my hair.

That caused me a great trembling;

and then, I no longer know how,

he became my lover.

And although he was unknown to me,

I clasped him against my naked breast

when he came into my bedroom.

I kept saying: “You will love me

for as long as you are able!”

I would sleep well only in his arms.

But he, feeling his heart grown cold,

departed some mornings ago,

without me, for a distant land.

Since I have my lover no longer

I will die in the pond, among

the flowers, under the sleeping water.

Amid the noise of foliage and stream

I will tell the birds of my sorrow

and will cause the reeds to part.

Pausing on the edge, I will speak

his name to the wind, while dreaming

that I often awaited him there.

And as if in a golden shroud,

with my hair undone, I will let myself go

wherever the current takes me.

The happy times I have known will shed

their gentle light on my forehead;

and the green reeds will entwine me.

And my breast will believe,

as it trembles caressed and entwined,

that the absent one is embracing me.

May my final breath, borne away

among the scents of the summer wind

be a sign of sensual pleasure!

And may it fly, like a butterfly charmed

by the beautiful roses of May,

onto the lips of my beloved!