To a Friend [Italian translation]

I

I ask but one thing of you, 

only one,

only one,

That always you will be

my dream of you, of you;

That never shall I wake to find untrue

II

All this I have believed

and rested on1,

and rested on,

Forever vanished,

like a vision gone

Out into the night.

Alas, how few there are

who strike in us

a chord we knew existed,

but so seldom heard its tone

We tremble at the half-forgotten sound.

III

I ask but one thing of you, 

only one,

only one,

That always you will be

my dream of you, of you;

That never shall I wake to find untrue

All this I have believed

and rested on,

and rested on,

IV

The world is full of rude awakenings

And heaven 2 shattered to the ground,

Yet still our human longing

vainly clings

To a belief in beauty

through all wrongs 3.

O stay your hand,

and leave my heart its songs!

1. "taken for granted"2. Amy Lovel  writes "And heaven -born castles"3. injustice