Littell's Living Age/Volume 143/Issue 1847/Life and Love

111981Littell's Living AgeVolume 143, Issue 1847 : Life and LoveW. D. ScoonesFriedrich Rückert
Life and Love 

Life! What is life, when thou, O love, art dead?
Death! What is death, if love yet living be?
When thou, the soul, hast from the body fled,
What may the body's life avail to me?
Or why the body's ruin do I dread,
When thou, the soul, to heaven soarest free?
Love, art thou dead, I would not live, not I:
Love, art thou living, I can never die.