C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

If You but Knew

Translation of E. and R. E. Prothero

IF you but knew the tears that fall

For life unloved and fireside drear,

Perhaps, before my lonely hall,

You would pass near.

If you but knew your power to thrill

My drooping soul by one pure glance,

One look across my window-sill

You’d cast perchance.

If you but knew what soothing balm

One heart can on another pour,

Would you not sit—a sister calm—

Beside my door?

And if you knew I loved you well,

And loved you too with all my heart,

You’d come to me, with me to dwell,

And ne’er depart.