I can love only you,
And since you can never be mine
Therefore I must love a shadow.

O Shadow, lovely as dawnrise,
Like a wind of summer are you to my soul,
Soft wind amid the skies.

Forever must I love only a shadow
Impalpable, exquisite thing,
Diaphanous as a rainbow wing.

(But when the long dark nights are here,
It is your lips I need, and I would rest
On the white violet of your breast.)