Sheet Lightning

I stepped through the spring night into the garden.

The year's first lightning flashed across the sky.

The tender blossoms shimmered red as fire

and then grew pale again. A gorgeous show

before which I stood still. Then I saw you.

You were diverted with a sprig of blooms,

the early-stricken dead one! Through the rush

and flow of time I recollected you,

who even now outshone the heaven's fire.

Glowing you stood, as you had once before

when the first words of love astonished you,

you unsubdued one, you who have escaped!

Then with the blossoms, you grew pale again.