Heinrich Heine: “Heart Sounds”

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. From my heart poured out the feeling of love;

it poured forth with wild longing

into the broad night.

The flowers in the garden beneath my window

breathed a stronger perfume.

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Perfumes are the feelings of flowers,

and as the human heart feels

the most powerful emotions in the night,

when it believes itself to be alone and unperceived,

so, also, do the flowers,

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Soft-minded, yet ashamed, appear to wait

for concealing darkness,

that they may give themselves wholly up to

their feelings, and breathe them

out in sweet odors.

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Pour forth, ye perfumes of my heart,

and seek beyond yon blue mountain for

the loved one of my dreams!

Now she lies in slumber, at her feet kneel angels,

and if she smiles in sleep it is a prayer which angels repeat.

.

In her breast is heaven with all its raptures,

and as she breathes, my heart, though afar,

throbs responsively.

Behind the silken lids of her eyes

the sun has gone down,

and when they are raised the sun rises,

and birds sing and the bells of the flock tinkle,

and I strap on my knapsack and depart.…