The Passers-By (Les passantes)

I sing you a song that I offer
To all the women you love for
A moment, a brief secrettime
To those that you scarcely
Had met when
A different destiny led them
To places you can't even find

To her that you saw
For an instant
Appear at
Her window quite distant
Then suddenly vanish away,
Her slim silhouette
A mere outline
So gracefully faded
For all time
But filled you with joy come
To stay

To her on a train
You were travelling
Whose beautiful eyes left you
Marvelling
And shortened
The journey so much,
Perhaps
You alone understood her,
You watched her get out:
But you could not
Even give her soft hand
One light touch

To women already bespoken
Who find their life's
A mere token
With someone
That seems not to care.
They once,
In a moment of madness
Described the unbearable
Sadness
When life holds
Our only despair

The vision once
Glimpsed and idealised,
The shortest-lived hopes,
Never realised,
Remains in our minds
Just one day
Whatever brief happiness
Takes you
The memory
Will quickly forsake you
Of those you once met
On your way

But feeling
Your life has been wasted
You wish with regret
That you'd tasted

And known-what
These joys might
Have been:
The kisses
You dared not discover,
The hearts that await
You forever,
Those eyes and
Their glances unseen

When weariness lengthens
Your evenings
You people your solitude,
Grieving,
With phantoms
Your memory retains
You mourn absent
Lips of these countless
Fair passers-by briefly
Encountered
You didn't know how
To detain