To a Friend
I
I ask but one thing of you,
only one,
only one,
That always you will be
my dream of you, of you;
That never shall I wake to find untrue
II
All this I have believed
and rested on1,
and rested on,
Forever vanished,
like a vision gone
Out into the night.
Alas, how few there are
who strike in us
a chord we knew existed,
but so seldom heard its tone
We tremble at the half-forgotten sound.
III
I ask but one thing of you,
only one,
only one,
That always you will be
my dream of you, of you;
That never shall I wake to find untrue
All this I have believed
and rested on,
and rested on,
IV
The world is full of rude awakenings
And heaven 2 shattered to the ground,
Yet still our human longing
vainly clings
To a belief in beauty
through all wrongs 3.
O stay your hand,
and leave my heart its songs!
