***

Light wanes, in sudden haste retreating,
And darkness clothes in haze the blue of sky and sea.
Blow, winds! Fill, sails, their charge obedient meeting,
Roll, gloomy waves, and play in furtive, fitful glee!
A southern land, a land enchanted,
My heart with longing filled, I see before me lie;
I gaze on it, enthralled, by wayward memory
To shores left far behind transplanted...
Anew am I aflame; from out my eyes well tears;
My heart now sinks, now soars in rapture;
Past dreams and fancies hover round me; I recapture
The mad, tempestuous love of half-forgotten years
With all its sufferings, its joys, however fleeting,
Its forfeited desires and hopes illusory...
Blow, winds! Fill, sails, their charge obedient meeting,
Roll, gloomy waves, and play in furtive, fitful glee!
Fly, ship, and carry me to shores in distance shrouded
Wherever frowning seas capriciously command,
But shun, I beg, the sorrow-clouded,
Dim reaches of my native land,
Where my heart's smouldering flames were fanned
To passion, where the muses tender
Upon me smiled, where early did its bloom surrender,
By storms incessant buffeted,
My wasted youth, where joy light-winged
Betrayed my eager heart and brought distress that lingered
And, cruel, would not pass... 'Twas then from you I fled,
O, homeland mine, in desperation;
And you, of transient youth the transient friends,
Wooers of delight, in quest of new sensation
Far from your side I went... Wherever fortune sends,
There willing now I fly, rejecting the temptation
Held lightly out by those with whom I shared 'thout love
Sin's most delicious pleasures and who robbed me of
Fame, freedom, calm and peace; with you my bonds I sever,
O faithless playmates mine, and leave behind for ever
Our frolics... But of pain my heart is still not free;
Its wounds remain unhealed, my fondest hopes defeating...
Blow, winds! Fill, sails, their charge obedient meeting,
Roll, gloomy waves, and play in furtive, fitful glee!..