Fate Knows No Tears

Just as the dawn of Love was breaking

Across the weary world of grey,

Just as my life once more was waking

As roses waken late in May,

Fate, blindly cruel and havoc-making,

Stepped in and carried you away.

Memories have I none in keeping

Of times I held you near my heart,

Of dreams when we were near to weeping

That dawn should bid us rise and part;

Never, alas, I saw you sleeping

With soft closed eyes and lips apart,

Breathing my name still through your dreaming.–

Ah! had you stayed, such things had been!

But Fate, unheeding human scheming,

Serenely reckless came between–

Fate with her cold eyes hard and gleaming

Unseared by all the sorrow seen.

Ah! well-beloved, I never told you,

I did not show in speech or song,

How at the end I longed to fold you

Close in my arms; so fierce and strong

The longing grew to have and hold you,

You, and you only, all life long.

They who know nothing call me fickle,

Keen to pursue and loth to keep.

Ah, could they see these tears that trickle

From eyes erstwhile too proud to weep.

Could see me, prone, beneath the sickle,

While pain and sorrow stand and reap!

Unopened scarce, yet overblown, lie

The hopes that rose-like round me grew,

The lights are low, and more than lonely

This life I lead apart from you.

Come back, come back! I want you only,

And you who loved me never knew.

You loved me, pleaded for compassion

On all the pain I would not share;

And I in weary, halting fashion

Was loth to listen, long to care;

But now, dear God! I faint with passion

For your far eyes and distant hair.

Yes, I am faint with love, and broken

With sleepless nights and empty days;

I want your soft words fiercely spoken,

Your tender looks and wayward ways–

Want that strange smile that gave me token

Of many things that no man says.

Cold was I, weary, slow to waken

Till, startled by your ardent eyes,

I felt the soul within me shaken

And long-forgotten senses rise;

But in that moment you were taken,

And thus we lost our Paradise!

Farewell, we may not now recover

That golden “Then” misspent, passed by,

We shall not meet as loved and lover

Here, or hereafter, you and I.

My time for loving you is over,

Love has no future, but to die.

And thus we part, with no believing

In any chance of future years.

We have no idle self-deceiving,

No half-consoling hopes and fears;

We know the Gods grant no retrieving

A wasted chance. Fate knows no tears.

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Poems in English 

• Robert Burns: The Young Highland Rover: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: My Peggy’s Charms: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Braving Angry Winter’s Storms: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: The Banks Of The Devon: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Epitaph For Mr. W. Cruikshank: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: A Rose-Bud By My Early Walk: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Blythe Was She: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: On Scaring Some Water-Fowl In Loch-Turit : A wild scene among the Hills of Oughtertyre. by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: The Bonie Lass Of Albany: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Theniel Menzies’ Bonie Mary: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Lady Onlie, Honest Lucky: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Castle Gordon: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Strathallan’s Lament: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Epigram On Parting With A Kind Host In The Highlands: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Lines On The Fall Of Fyers Near Loch-Ness.: Written with a Pencil on the Spot. by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: The Humble Petition Of Bruar Water: To the noble Duke of Athole. by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: The Birks Of Aberfeldy: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Verses Written With A Pencil Over the Chimney-piece in the Parlour of the Inn at Kenmore, Taymouth.: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: The Libeller’s Self-Reproof: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: The Poet’s Reply To The Threat Of A Censorious Critic: My imprudent lines were answered, very petulantly, by somebody, I believe, a Rev. Mr. Hamilton. In a MS., where I met the answer, I wrote below:- by Robert Burns

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