Abélard And Heloise

I remove to a distance from your person

With an intention of avoiding you as an enemy

And yet I incessantly seek for you in my mind

I recall your image in my memory

And in different disquietudes I betray and contradict myself

I hate you! I love you!

But if I lose you, what have I left to hope for?

Why continue on life's pilgrimage

For which I have no support but you

And none in you save the knowledge that you are alive

Now that I am forbidden all other pleasures in you

And denied even the joy of your presence

Which from time to time could restore me to myself?

I am at this moment afraid I should seem more indifferent than you fare

And yet I am ashamed to discover my trouble

Ah, Heloise, how far are we from such a happy temper?

Your heart still burns with that fatal fire you cannot extinguish

And mine is full of trouble and unrest

Think not, Heloise, that I here enjoy a perfect peace

I will for the last time open my heart to you

I am not yet disengaged from you

And though I fight against my excessive tenderness for you

In spite of all my endeavours I remain but too sensible of your sorrows

And long to share in them

The hollow bell rings

The cloistered hearts yearn to forget

These mournful but dear remembrances

Sought solace never met

I promise myself that I will forget, yet I cannot

Your words that burn within my heart my bitter tears shall blot

The tree from which I tasted fruit displays now naught but leaves

This history of misfortunes made my heart bleed within me

My heart is pierced with your sorrows, pierced with mine own

With my face pressed I mix my tears with earth, the earth my home

When all is finished, you'll be near, cold ashes need not fear

My tomb shall be the richer for them, lover ever near

The violent motion of my heart

Our sufferings and revolutions

Though time aught to have closed my wounds

They open up and bleed afresh

Your words sufficient, they bleed afresh

Cold ashes need not fill

Our sufferings and revolutions