ODE 
                      (in Sapphic metre)

That I'm doomed to die I believed it never;
Always young and clad in my mantle I wandered,
Dreaming eyes uplifted for ever fixed on  
      Solitude's starlight.

When so sudden, there on my pathway rising,
Sorrow, O so painfully sweet, thou comest!
Then with deep delight to the dregs I drank thy
      Merciless death cup.

And like Nessus burning alive and tortured,
Poisoned as was Hercules with his garment
This great fire that's blazing in me I cannot
      Quench with an ocean.

My own dream consuming me, sore lamenting,
On my pyre I die thus to ashes burning...
Can I from it living arise as bringht as
      Phoenix the immortal?

Troubling eyes, go out of my way for ever!
Back to me indifference dreary come now!
That I may in quietness die, Ogive me
      Back my old selfhood! 

English version by Petre Grimm

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