Passion brings pain! – Who will soothe you,

Troubled heart that has lost so, lost completely?

Where are the hours that all too swiftly flew?

In vain were you granted a sight of Beauty!

The spirit is clouded: purposes confused:

How the world’s splendour fades from our view!

But music soars aloft now on angel’s wings,

Millions of notes on notes are intertwined,

Piercing through and through all mortal being,

Eternal beauty flows now through the mind:

The eyes are dim, and filled with highest yearning,

The divine power of tears, and music’s singing.

And so the heart is eased, and once more feels

It lives and throbs, must go on throbbing,

And in pure thanks a willing offering yields,

Of self, in kind, for this so generous giving.

Then it is felt – that it might last forever! –

The double joy of love, and music’s singing.

— Goethe, Reconciliation