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Rampolli - A Year's Diary of an Old Soul

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V.

If I him but have,[1]

  If he be but mine, If my heart, hence to the grave,

  Ne'er forgets his love divine-- Know I nought of sadness,
Feel I nought but worship, love, and gladness.

[Footnote 1: Here I found the double or feminine rhyme impossible without the loss of the far more precious simplicity of the original, which could be retained only by a literal translation.]

If I him but have,

  Pleased from all I part; Follow, on my pilgrim staff,

  None but him, with honest heart; Leave the rest, nought saying,
On broad, bright, and crowded highways straying.

If I him but have,

  Glad to sleep I sink; From his heart the flood he gave

  Shall to mine be food and drink; And, with sweet compelling,
Mine shall soften, deep throughout it welling.

If I him but have,

  Mine the world I hail; Happy, like a cherub grave

  Holding back the Virgin's veil: I, deep sunk in gazing,
Hear no more the Earth or its poor praising.

Where I have but him

  Is my fatherland; Every gift a precious gem

  Come to me from his own hand! Brothers long deplored,
Lo, in his disciples, all restored!



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