| |
| LET us go hence, my songs; she will not hear. | |
| Let us go hence together without fear; | |
| Keep silence now, for singing-time is over, | |
| And over all old things and all things dear. | |
| She loves not you nor me as all we love her. | 5 |
| Yea, though we sang as angels in her ear, | |
| She would not hear. | |
| |
| Let us rise up and part; she will not know. | |
| Let us go seaward as the great winds go, | |
| Full of blown sand and foam; what help is here? | 10 |
| There is no help, for all these things are so, | |
| And all the world is bitter as a tear. | |
| And how these things are, though ye strove to show, | |
| She would not know. | |
| |
| Let us go home and hence; she will not weep. | 15 |
| We gave love many dreams and days to keep, | |
| Flowers without scent, and fruits that would not grow, | |
| Saying ‘If thou wilt, thrust in thy sickle and reap.’ | |
| All is reap’d now; no grass is left to mow; | |
| And we that sow’d, though all we fell on sleep, | 20 |
| She would not weep. | |
| |
| Let us go hence and rest; she will not love. | |
| She shall not hear us if we sing hereof, | |
| Nor see love’s ways, how sore they are and steep. | |
| Come hence, let be, lie still; it is enough. | 25 |
| Love is a barren sea, bitter and deep; | |
| And though she saw all heaven in flower above, | |
| She would not love. | |
| |
| Let us give up, go down; she will not care. | |
| Though all the stars made gold of all the air, | 30 |
| And the sea moving saw before it move | |
| One moon-flower making all the foam-flowers fair; | |
| Though all those waves went over us, and drove | |
| Deep down the stifling lips and drowning hair, | |
| She would not care. | 35 |
| |
| Let us go hence, go hence; she will not see. | |
| Sing all once more together; surely she, | |
| She too, remembering days and words that were, | |
| Will turn a little toward us, sighing; but we, | |
| We are hence, we are gone, as though we had not been there. | 40 |
| Nay, and though all men seeing had pity on me, | |
| She would not see. | |
| |
