Translated from the Spanish by Mason Carnes
When sleep folds his gauzy wings
Over you at dead of night,
And your eye-lashes fast-closed
Look like bows of ebony;
Then to listen to your heart
Throbbing in a sweet unrest
And to lean your sleeping head
On my breast, I’d give, my soul,
All I own—light, air and thought!
When your eyes look far away
At something invisible,
And the reflex of a smile
Darts, illumining your lips;
Then to read upon your brow
Silent thoughts, that pass like clouds
O’er a glass, I’d give, my soul,
All I wish—fame, genius, gold!
When words die upon your lips,
And your breath comes quick and warm,
And your cheeks are all aglow
And your black eyes look in mine;
Then to see in them a spark,
Flashing with a humid fire,
As it gushes from the heart,
I would give, soul of my soul,
All that is and all to come!
From Poems of Gustavo Adolfo Becquer (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd., 1891) by Gustavo Adolfo Becquer. Translated from the Spanish by Mason Carnes. This poem is in the public domain.