C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

The Kiss Refused

Translation of John Pollen

I WOULD kiss you, lover true!

But I fear the moon would spy;

Little bright stars watch us too.

Little stars might fall from sky

To the blue sea, telling all!

To the oars the sea will tell,

Oars, in turn, tell Fisher Eno—

Him whom Mary loveth well:

And when Mary knows a thing,

All the neighborhood will know;—

How by moonlight in the garden

Where the fragrant flowers grow,

I caressed and fondly kissed thee,

While the silver apple-tree

Shed its bloom on you and me!