When waters that had swollen in the deluge
Retreated to the margins of the shores,
Love softly reached a dry place to take refuge
From foam ebbing to levels as before
And for a time dissolved and with the air fused,
But that time lasted eons by the score.

And there are some who, nothing like the rest,
Breathe in that mixture till it fills their chests.
They don’t expect rewards or castigation
But thinking that they’re simply drawing breath
They suddenly start falling into step
With someone’s same uneven respiration.

But emotion for a long time sits
Just floating as if it were a ship
Till it knows "I love" means only this:
That I breathe and that means I exist.

And there’ll be many wanderings and journeys;
Love’s country’s with vast territories blessed -
And challenges that grow ever more stern she
Gives to her knights to put them to the test.
She’ll make them suffer separations, yearnings;
And take from them all peace or sleep or rest.

But love-crazed people won’t be turned away
For they’re prepared in any case to pay
Whatever price and risk their lives forever
To keep from breaks or harm in any way
The magic thread worth more than words can say
That interlaced the two of them together.

By fresh winds the chosen ones were drugged,
Brought new life and knocked down off their feet
For this reason: if you never loved
Then you never lived and never breathed.

But you won’t reach, however much you call them,
Most people once their lungs have filled with love;
The wagging tongues make notes and won’t ignore them,
But rumour’s notes are mixed up with their blood.
Still at the heads of mighty love’s brave fallen
We place candles to light them from above.

Their voices then in unison may sound;
Their souls may rove with flowers all around
And eternally breathe with one respiration
And meet up with a sigh upon their mouths
On fragile piers and bridges tumbling down
And on the narrow crossroads of creation.

I’ll make lovers beds in fields of bliss -
Sleeping and awake may they sing this:
If I breathe I love and what that is
Is I love and that means I exist.