I sing you a song that I offer
To all the women you love for
A moment, a brief secret time
To those that you scarcely had met when
A different destiny led them
To places you can't even find

To her that you saw for an instant
Appear at her window quite distant
Then suddenly vanish away
Her slim silhouette a mere outline
So gracefully faded for all time
But filled you with joy come to stay

To her on a train you were travelling
Whose beautiful eyes left you marveling
And shortened the journey so much
Perhaps you alone understood her
You watched her get out but you couldn't
Even give her soft hand one light touch

To women already bespoken
Who find their life's a mere token
With someone that seems not to care
They once in a moment of madness
Described the unbearable sadness
When life holds our only despair

The vision once glimpsed and idealized
The shortest-lived hopes never realized
Remains in our minds just one day
Whatever brief happiness takes you
The memory will quickly forsake you
Of those you once met on your way

But feeling your life has been wasted
You wish with regret that you'd tasted
And known what these joys might have been
The kisses you dared not discover
The hearts that await you forever
Those eyes and their glances unseen

When weariness lengthens your evenings
You people your solitude grieving,
With phantoms your memory retains
You mourn absent lips of these countless
Fair passers-by briefly encountered
You didn't know how to detain