If my eyelids, Lisi, could be lips,
kisses rays of sight would surely be
from my eyes, which like golden eagles watch
the sun, and they would kiss more than they see.
Your beauty, dropsically, they would drink,
and crystals, thirsting for your crystal panes;
from lights and from those great celestial fires,
nourishing their death, alive they'd stay.
By invisible commerce thus sustained,
their bodies wholly nude, such bounteous gifts
my potency and senses would caress;
mute, they would demand their ecstasy;
they could, once parted, see themselves entwined,
and publicly, their secret love possess.
Translated by Alix Ingber