FAITHFUL SERVE WAY

I have been your slave

 and your faithful slave

 for a long time;

 now my just and afflicted

 orphanhood must be yours:

 With the hellish hordes

 of days behind me,

 And with their fierce demons

 I alone have fought,

 For I must, and the law

 within me demanded,

 The foul Heart!

 I have kept thee

 - and thou knowest well 

- that I have stood by thee, always! 

The romance of my kisses

 was often but a budding

 kiss on thy fairy-face's pond,

 Chased with unrelenting

 sincerity by the hopeless

 knowledge That

 I was lost to thee for ever,

 and my loneliness was sucked

 in at one stroke By

 cosmos-wandering Nothing,

 when thou didst with thy

 haughty hubris tell

 Thee that thy heart's

 beating eternal constellation

 Was another realm. Strangler

with my jealousy I did not wake you:

 I let you go in contented

 consciousness, 

for I wanted to know

 with every nerve cell

 and trust that the verdict

 of responsible judgment

 could only come from you! 

From the depths of the gaping

 giant mouth of my loneliness,

 the soft, delicate music

 of your voice keeps calling,

 "Must you be brave, 

just a little while longer?"

 - Of the pieces of the Universe,

 I know now, without thee and

 the unquestionable hold

 of thy being,

 something is missing!

Thou hast wasted thine eyes

 on a sick vagabond soul,

 And cannot shine on my

 conscience the confident

 radiance Of thy mortal human star,

 thy faithful self-confidence!

 Sometimes thou wilt think of me,

 and with the echo-sounds

 of far-off distances

 Offer me thy heart's

 answer as a sacrifice!