Hymn to the Night III

Once when I was shedding bitter tears, when, dissolved in pain, my hopewas melting away, and I stood alone by the barren hillock which in itsnarrow dark bosom hid the vanished form of my Life, lonely as never yetwas lonely man, driven by anguish unspeakable, powerless, and no longeraught but a conscious misery;--as there I looked about me for help, unableto go on or to turn back, and clung to the fleeting, extinguished lifewith an endless longing: then, out of the blue distances, from the hillsof my ancient bliss, came a shiver of twilight, and at once snapped thebond of birth, the fetter of the Light. Away fled the glory of the world,and with it my mourning; the sadness flowed together into a new,unfathomable world. Thou, soul of the Night, heavenly Slumber, didst comeupon me; the region gently upheaved itself, and over it hovered myunbound, new-born spirit. The hillock became a cloud of dust, and throughthe cloud I saw the glorified face of my beloved. In her eyes eternityreposed. I laid hold of her hands, and the tears became a sparkling chainthat could not be broken. Into the distance swept by, like a tempest,thousands of years. On her neck I welcomed the new life with ecstatictears. Never was such another dream; then first and ever since I hold fastan eternal, unchangeable faith in the heaven of the Night, and its sun,the Beloved.