My young beloved, finally we've risen
To the cliffs that look out on the sea of age,
The grey, the sad. Against this lichened edge
The long swell of my yearning's doomed to lessen.

O, don't you see: I'm autumn, treacherous,
Aiming at your little heart a lance that's poisoned,
You, young one, glowing, whose love's unloosened
Your virgin breast to my inflamed caress ?

O, don't you sense it, when your dress is falling
In soft white eddies at your feet,
And you, like Aphrodite, smile to suit
Some paradise's coral shore unrolling,
That I am broken at my being's root ?