| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | The Secret (I.) | | By Felix Arvers (1806–1850) |
| | Translated by Thomas Ashe
MY life its secret and its mystery has, | |
| A love eternal in a moment born; | |
| There is no hope to help my evil case, | |
| And she knows nought who makes me thus forlorn. | |
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| And I unmark’d shall ever by her pass | 5 |
| Aye at her side, and yet for aye alone; | |
| And I shall waste my bitter days, alas! | |
| And never dare to claim my love, my own! | |
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| And she, whom God has made so sweet and dear, | |
| Will go her way, distraught, and never hear | 10 |
| This murmur round her of my love and pain; | |
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| To austere duty true, will go her way, | |
| And read these verses, full of her, and say, | |
| “Who is this woman that he sings of then?” | | | | |
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