Classic Poem

You, eternal love for child, how did you fall into me,
Like a kind and gentle seed fallen on the desert floor,
That clinged to the other buds, waiting for a long, long while,
Guiding its juices in vain to the currents of the earth?

Of childhood I remember, before any other love,
That for parent, for sister, I felt so like the father
Of the child that was to come, of him who was within me,
A love of endless circle, from myself toward myself.

I would see him just as if he were a little brother,
I would see him as spirit, and I would see him as flesh
And oft - you'd think - descended, onto the face of a boy....

Ah, my boy, who used to live so close to me at one time,
He has left now, forever; and in the clouds, sometimes,
Among those white, passing clouds, there I still find him... yes... still...