Classic Poem

Don't ask me for a date,
tomorrow we shall meet regardless,
just as we did today.

Night has driven me here.
Wandering aimlessly I looked for friends
and found only this cave.
I have imposed myself on you
feeling I am still pursued,
I am that ancient shepherd.
And who remembers me?
After I lost my faith,
after I became a heretic,
who remembers me?
Only the beast that tears
soundlessly at my breast.

Your eyes are my last refuge
where I hide my face in your gaze,
waiting for my end
where light is most intense.
Your eyes are grass and dew
where for a moment I spread my shadow
then continue on my way.

Don't ask me to tell you tomorrow
what I have told you today
because I am trying to forget —
O my short-lived love,
I am trying to forget
so that the light of day
will not see me, know me,
and tear the mask from my face.

Once I used to be brave
but I tasted my enemy's food
and was crippled.
I was a wise poet once
but when I managed to make
two different words mean the same
I lost my wisdom, poetry eluded me.
I was a faithful lover once
but now I am robbed of my soul
by day and turn
into a shivering ghost
in the small hours of the night.

When I wake up alone
lying limp on top of my shadow
crushed against the wall
on the floor of our cave,
I ask myself, has our time run out?
I thought it had just begun.

Your eyes are two words never uttered.
Having failed to be spoken
they remain themselves,
two nuns in black habit
waiting despairingly for their wedding night.

Wait for me here every night.
I might show up,
or never come.
Our kiss is long,
the night of our misery warm.