1. I looked at a smooth surface that gleamed whitely,
And said to it: “Where is she who left us?"

2. Were you not a horizon in which her full moon rose?
She took no beauty from you, nor you from her.

3. Yet you are beautiful, reminding of that beauty,
Stirring my heart whenever she is recalled.

4. On you is the greeting of love from a lover who came
Murmuring poetry in your echoes that rang clearly.

5. Seeing you, O mirror, saddens a lover,
And your smoothness reflects sadness after beauty.

6. In you shines no beauty of the beloved rising;
My heart’s mirror still reflects only beauty.

7. How often did spring display its adornments on you,
When she was clothed in finery up to her neck!

8. How often a full moon and stars rose over you,
While you were a sky drawing in spirit and mind!

9. My spring is gone, and the star has fallen from my heaven,
What is the state of one round whom night has gathered?

10. Both of us saw his face in your life,
And her mirror was my eyes that took in meaning.

11. Beyond physical beauty I have the beauty of her image,
In nearness and distance I behold her doubled.

12. Her mirror is an ocean, a horizon, that when she sings
From farthest shore to nearest shallow enchants.

13. One day her face will rise in you, so witness
The rapture of one intoxicated with bliss and melody.”