Your black eyes,
Full of mystery,
Full of the elixir of life,
Enchanted me. What magic, what strife!
The sky was clear,
The night calm,
Luck happy,
Time tame.
Moonbeams poured into every nook,
Lighting up the branches in the brook.
And the night
And the fields
And the flowers,
And the rocks that hasty day forsook.
I recall you say, "Avoid this love.
Heed the current,
The mirror of transient life.
"Today my looks,
Whose tomorrow,
Would please you most, my dove?
"Forget me." You said.
"Leave this town a while,
Preserve that God-given smile."
But,
"Avoid your love, I shall not," I said.
"I will not, till dead."
"The instant my heart--my love partridge,
Lit at your roof,
You threw stones to force me leave,
But I did not. Neither did I grieve.
"You are the hunter," I said. "I the game,
Forcing my way into your trap
To make me tame.
"I shall not abandon you
I will not go away,
Not until you do the same."
Droplets oozed down a branch.
With a bitter groan,
The bird of night took to flight.
Tears gathered in your eyes,
The moon's laughter at my plight.
Reminding me of the response I never received.
Sadness engulfed me,
I persisted.
I did not leave.
That night,
The next night,
All my nights,
Joined the darkness that only nights perceived.
You no longer recalled,
The heart-broken lover you had.
You never walked,
Down that alley,
That alley so sad.
Only if you knew,
The distress I went through,
Walking down that alley,
Without you.