Frederick Delius - Cease Smiling, Dear!

Cease smiling, Dear! a little while be sad
Here in the silence, under the wan moon
Sweet are thine eyes, but how can I be glad
Knowing they change so soon?

O could this moment be perpetuate!
Must we grow old, and leaden-eyed and gray
And taste no more the wild and passionate
Love sorrows of to-day?

O red pomegranate of thy perfect mouth!
My lips' life-fruitage might I taste and die
Here to thy garden, where the scented south
Wind chastens agony;

Reap death from thy live lips in one long kiss
And look my last into thine eyes and rest:
What sweets had life to me sweeter than this
Swift dying on thy breast?

Or, if that may not be, for Love's sake, Dear!
Keep silence still, and dream that we shall lie
Red mouth to mouth, entwined, and always hear
The south wind's melody

Here in thy garden, through the sighing boughs
Beyond the reach of time and chance and change
And bitter life and death, and broken vows
That sadden and estrange