“Oh, you would listen to the stars?
You must be mad!”—But I will answer yet:
To hear them, many nights I waken,
Throw wide the windows, pale with wonderment…
We talk the whole night long, while overhead
The Milky Way, like some unfurled canopy,
Gleams; and at sunrise, grief-struck, longing,
I search them still in the empty sky.
You’ll say: “Crazy friend! What do they tell you?
What sense is in their speech when they are near?”
I’ll answer: “Love—then you will understand;
For only lovers have an ear
To hear, and truly understand, the stars.”