I sing you a song that I offer To all the women you love for A moment, a brief secrettime 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 marvelling And shortened The journey so much, Perhaps You alone understood her, you watched her get out: But you could not 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 idealised, The shortest-lived hopes, Never realised, 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.