I give you back to Fate

I give you back to Fate,

Whence I received you,

Beloved! -- yet you do not know

What I bury with your image.

There are no words known to man

To describe what was taken from my breast;

It is not hope, it is not comfort,

For all of that may return.

It is a wondrous thing

That leaves the heart forever --

When we are struck by the first betrayal,

A thing for the loss of which we can never be consoled,

Something that God places in our cradle

As the morning-gift of our youth.

Beloved, oh you do not know

What I bury with your image!