this autumn morning is tired with excess of light, and if your songs grow fitful and languid give me your flute awhile.

i shall but play with it as the whim takes me,—now take it on my lap, now touch it with my lips, now keep it by my side on the grass.

but in the solemn evening stillness i shall gather flowers, to deck it with wreaths, i shall fill it with fragrance; i shall worship it with the lighted lamp.

then at night i shall come to you and give you back your flute.

you will play on it the music of midnight when the lonely crescent moon wanders among the stars.