To-day, grown rich with what I late have won,

[ZaunköniG]

To-day, grown rich with what I late have won,
Across the dusk I reach my hand to you.
Cold as a leaf long pillowed on a stone
Your hand takes mine, like something strange and new.
So soon grown careless? . . . No, for in your eyes
A tenderness still lives, half-shy, half-bold . . .
Then sudden wisdom to my trouble cries:
I know you still my love, but not the old.
That which I loved and won now all is gone;
She was an hour, a moment, a swift mood,--
Vanished forever into deeps unknown,--
And a new creature rules your brain and blood.
Yesterday you were mine, beloved and fair;
To-day I seek,--another love is there.