Queen and Slave

O happy life, whose love is found!
O happy love, whose life is free!
O happy strings whose soft notes sound
Athwart the sea!

The sea has mistress in the moon,
The moon has lover in the sea:
They meet too late, they part too soon—
And so do we.

I am adored, yet must obey;
I am a queen, and yet a slave.
It seems to me the self-same way
With moon and wave.

O be it so! O let it be!
O may I always rule and serve,
And live the life whose love is free,
And never swerve!