| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | Love | | By Alexandros R. Rhangabe (1810–1892) |
| | Translated by E. Mayhew Edmonds
BEHOLD, sweet love, all things on this our earth | |
| Have been prepared with leavening of tears! | |
| With tears, delight—with tears, renown appears,— | |
| With mingled tears hath every joy its birth. | |
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| O’er land and sea Man passes, still at strife; | 5 |
| He passes—memories, footprints, leaving none: | |
| With tears mute science following alone, | |
| Grows old—and dies—ere he hath studied Life. | |
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| His vague desires across black chaos sail, | |
| He hopes—his hopes untimely withering fail. | 10 |
| Winged shadows he pursues,—on, on, they move. | |
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| Yet creeping through the darkness gently gleams | |
| For him th’ illumining light of one star’s beams; | |
| One smile alone—one smile—consoles him—Love. | | | | |
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