IN the beginning of time When, mingling night and day in your slender youth, Sole created being To move on creation, its sovereign meaning and mistress,— When you came, dusky and brilliant, And paused to greet me (Me, also a god being your opposite and equal), In the beginning first I knew that I loved When it seemed so foolish, so needless, So many heart-beats went by Before I remembered that, in the world of phenomena, One should always—and I to you, O absurdity!— On meeting a lady, instinctively raise one's hat. |