The Passers-by

I sing you a song that i offer

To all the women you love for

A moment, a brief secret time

To those that you scarcely had met when

A different destiny led them

To places you can't even find

To her that you saw for an instant

Appear at her window quite distant

Then suddenly vanish away

Her slim silhouette a mere outline

So gracefully faded for all time

But filled you with joy come to stay

To her on a train you were travelling

Whose beautiful eyes left you marveling

And shortened the journey so much

Perhaps you alone understood her

You watched her get out but you couldn't

Even give her soft hand one light touch

To women already bespoken

Who find their life's a mere token

With someone that seems not to care

They once in a moment of madness

Described the unbearable sadness

When life holds our only despair

The vision once glimpsed and idealized

The shortest-lived hopes never realized

Remains in our minds just one day

Whatever brief happiness takes you

The memory will quickly forsake you

Of those you once met on your way

But feeling your life has been wasted

You wish with regret that you'd tasted

And known what these joys might have been

The kisses you dared not discover

The hearts that await you forever

Those eyes and their glances unseen

When weariness lengthens your evenings

You people your solitude grieving,

With phantoms your memory retains

You mourn absent lips of these countless

Fair passers-by briefly encountered

You didn't know how to detain