Again I see you, ah my queen, <br />Of all my old loves that have been, <br />The first love, and the tenderest; <br />Do you remember or forget - <br />Ah me, for I remember yet - <br />How the last summer days were blest? <br /> <br />Ah lady, when we think of this, <br />The foolish hours of youth and bliss, <br />How fleet, how sweet, how hard to hold! <br />How old we are, ere spring be green! <br />You touch the limit of eighteen <br />And I am twenty winters old. <br /> <br />My rose, that mid the red roses, <br />Was brightest, ah, how pale she is! <br />Yet keeps the beauty of her prime; <br />Child, never Spanish lady's face <br />Was lovely with so wild a grace; <br />Remember the dead summer time. <br /> <br />Think of our loves, our feuds of old, <br />And how you gave your chain of gold <br />To me for a peace offering; <br />And how all night I lay awake <br />To touch and kiss it for your sake, - <br />To touch and kiss the lifeless thing. <br /> <br />Lady, beware, for all we say, <br />This Love shall live another day, <br />Awakened from his deathly sleep; <br />The heart that once has been your shrine <br />For other loves is too divine; <br />A home, my dear, too wide and deep. <br /> <br />What did I say-why do I dream? <br />Why should I struggle with the stream <br />Whose waves return not any day? <br />Close heart, and eyes, and arms from me; <br />Farewell, farewell! so must it be, <br />So runs, so runs, the world away, <br /> <br />The season bears upon its wing <br />The swallows and the songs of spring, <br />And days that were, and days that flit; <br />The loved lost hours are far away; <br />And hope and fame are scattered spray <br />For me, that gave you love a day <br />For you that not remember it.<br /><br />Alfred de Musset<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/juana-2/
