Oh, how curious is this Life,Replete with riddleAnd crowded with contradiction.

I am left puzzled by its purposeWhy are flowers fragrant?Why do they attract birds that sing and bees that sting?Why does your glowing smile cause my palms to sweat and my skin to flush?

It is easy to know when you are cheerfulYour smile, as delicate as a rose and as bold as a lilac, blooms across your faceYour soft cheeks arch towards the heavens, Seizing angels with awe and jealousy

Yet, your hazel eyes peer into mine with a questioning lookThey seem to ask me my purpose

That is when the fear strikesHow can I tell you?My heart yearns for your embraceWhile my conscience gives me pause

Like the touch of cold steel,The hard truth causes me to recoil.

For your heart belongs to anotherAnother man who is enamored by your beautyAnother man whose heart quakes when you are near

Curse him!Curse your Arthur!My patience has been betrayedNever again shall I wait with baited breath

Yet, what if your smile is for me?Oh wicked Chance, shall I cast my lot And take your hand in mine?

Come nowHow can I wrong a decent man?I know nothing of his transgressionsAncient chivalry stays my hand,For what is a man without his honor?

Honor? Bah! Forget honorCoward, grasp her by the waistMake her yours!

What thoughts!Away! Away, errant Voice

At first, there was restlessness. With you in my thoughts,I could neither sit in chairs nor fall asleep. Now, there is only painThe arduous pain of a seemingly hopeless love

I must leave youMy love for you is forbidden by glaring customYour sanguine smile darkens my soulIt cleaves my heart and pollutes my lungsI cannot breathe when you are near

My dear,I must breathe the free airUnchain me from this dark cavern, So that the light may absolve my soul

Yet, will the wild ways of freedom rid me of you?I can never meet another woman, For you appear at every turn.

When I walk with others,Dance with others,Sleep with others,You are there.

My predicament is not exclusiveFor a sage once wrote,It does not matter whether love is sin or not.Love comes not from the calculating mind,But surges from the brainless heart, enveloping all.

I shall not flee.

It is enough that I am a man and you a womanWhat ever may happen,We are doomed to Hope and Despair,Life and Death,Lancelot and Guenever.