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

Absence

Translation of Edgar Taylor

IF I a small bird were,

And little wings might bear,

I’d fly to thee;

But vain those wishes are:

Here, then, my rest shall be.

When far from thee I bide,

In dreams still at thy side

I’ve talked with thee;

And when I woke, I sighed,

Myself alone to see.

No hour of wakeful night

But teems with thoughts of light,—

Sweet thoughts of thee,—

As when, in hours more bright,

Thou gav’st thy heart to me.