Felix Arvers (1806–1850)

Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Another rendering of the same Sonnet

MY soul its secret hath, my life too hath its mystery,

A love eternal in a moment’s space conceived;

Hopeless the evil is, I have not told its history,

And she who was the cause nor knew it nor believed.

Alas! I shall have passed close by her unperceived,

For ever at her side and yet for ever lonely,

I shall unto the end have made life’s journey, only

Daring to ask for nought, and having nought received.

For her, though God hath made her gentle and endearing,

She will go on her way distraught and without hearing

These murmurings of love that round her steps ascend,

Piously faithful still unto her austere duty,

Will say, when she shall read these lines full of her beauty,

“Who can this woman be?” and will not comprehend.