(English translation by Gareth Gorst)

I love you, you I know I must not love

But cannot help to love you for your grace.

You are my love but when push comes to shove

I’ll not reveal it, lest should frown that face.

Those serious looks you give, those searching eyes

Have read my thoughts, the secret of my soul,

Have froze my heart; silence alone denies

My hope, spells refusal in an unspoken ‘no’.

Already you stand back: our harmony, a dream,

Our meetings much too brief, too complex too

Much joking, as if playing a childhood game.

All that’s left is sadness it would seem,

The echo of words that passed from me to you

When I was near but didn’t feel the same.

So call me, my good neighbour, by my name;

When thirty years we’re gone and in the sky

Holding you I’ll be; thoughts never die.