for my heart trembles.

I would fear not agony,

yet I cannot.

How long must our eyes bleed

and our hearts weep?

It grieved me not

when first you taught my heart to fear.

It grieved me not

when you declared that life was no life.

It grieved me

when you pronounced

that love must die.

You say,

Love should be forgotten

by all the world.

And what is the cause?

Is it the paper in your hand?

Is it the glittering stone

that binds your neck like a chain?

You proclaim your rights.

You imagine yourself mighty.

Yet you know not

how short the road before you is.

For when your day comes,

and you descend

into the unhonoured grave,

no hymn shall follow you.

No wealth shall ransom you.

No pride shall accompany you.

Not even heaven

will remember your name.

You shall die twice—

once in body,

and once in memory.

I pity you.

Woe unto you, not unto us.

For we know what we have felt.

Beyond time.

Beyond forgetting.

Beyond death.

The elephant remembers.

The forest remembers.

Love remembers.

Only love.

All that lives

must love,

or perish.