"So we wanted to part? Thought it both good and wise?
Why, then, why did the act shock us as murder would?
Ah, ourselves we know little,
For within us a god commands.
Wrong that god? And betray him who created for us
Meaning, life, all we had, him who inspired and moved,
Who protected our loving,
This, this one thing I cannot do.
But a different wrong, different slavery
Now the world's mind invents, threatens with other laws,
And, by cunning, convention
Day by day steals away our souls.
Oh, I knew it before. Ever since deep-rooted Fear,
Ugly, crippled, estranged mortals from heaven's gods
To appease them with bloodshed
Lovers' hearts must be sacrificed.
Silent now let me be! Never henceforth let me know
This, my deadly disgrace, so that in peace I may
Hide myself where it's lonely
And the parting at least be ours.
Pass the cup, then, yourself, that of the rescuing,
Holy poison enough, that of the lethal draught
I may drink with you, all things,
Hate and love be forgotten then.
To be gone is my wish. Later perhaps one day,
Diotima, we'll meet—here, but desire by then
Will have bled away, peaceful
Like the blessed, and like strangers we'll
Walk about, as our talk leads us now here, now there,
Musing, hesitant, but then the oblivious ones
See the place where they parted,
And a heart newly warms in us,
Wondering I look at you, voices and lovely song
As from distant times, music of strings, I hear
And the lily unfolds her
Fragrance, golden above the brook".
(Friedrich Holderlin)