SPELLBOUND

When you are gone, then wildly hungers my soul.
When you are near, I yearn even so -
in despair I see,
stiffened, closed,
how empty and vain
the minute flows.

Your being's proud, royal flower-scent fine
I would secretly drink, a holy wine -
but mortally heavy I stand
as in dreams,
with thirst like Tantalus'
in clear, bright streams.

In solitude's time my tongue has burned
to tell you the beautiful things I knew and dreamed -
but in your nearness
my thought drowses, dumb.
my gate is closed,
and my heart goes numb.

For more information, please visit the website of David McDuff and his own pages with the translations.