Delmira Agustini (1886-1914)

I Live I Die I Burn I Drown


I live, I die, I burn, I drown
I endure at once chill and cold
Life is at once too soft and too hard
I have sore troubles mingled with joys

Suddenly I laugh and at the same time cry
And in pleasure many a grief endure
My happiness wanes and yet it lasts unchanged
All at once I dry up and grow green

Thus I suffer love's inconstancies
And when I think the pain is most intense
Without thinking, it is gone again.


Then when I feel my joys certain
And my hour of greatest delight arrived
I find my pain beginning all over once again.