So, I was in love for the second time,
with everything in the world and then with you.
We were in a forest beyond my years and dreams,
bordered by the brightest star.
*
The piece of jewelry you carry, whose is it?
Who is she? Do I know her? Yet, I see her.
She must be very much a part of you.
For your lips have grown tender in her absence,
and your eyes are opening in far away places.
Is she there waiting for you, beckoning you,
forgetting you? But no, I see so clearly now.
*
How she shines and never wanes ...
I see the evening star in your eyes and know
that you will not be mine.
Not in this life. Nor in any other life beyond.
For we come but once to Middle Earth.
We are little mortal flames, on the edge of all the nights.
You have your Elvish heritage, not I.
I am too many winters long, too many springs to come.
I am neither sure whether I will see the summer in full noon,
or whether I will perish before the sun has risen,
for the autumn has been long, behind these walls, my prison.
*
You were my love, and like the wilds, my unknown paths
wound their way towards you.
But I caught your scent and I was gone, as shy as ever,
azure eyes like an afternoon.
How can a first-born place his foot upon the soil
and grow stable like a tree?
Is not the world wide ocean in your sail?
For I know the song of elven boats.
You speak not, but there is something else
that troubles your heart. It is war.
*
The night is upon us all, the starlight was brief, if not glorious.
Where is my hope?
But I cannot help but weep for what was not.
I cannot help but love the light that shines.
I see the woman you love. I am not her.
She is an evening star on the edge of all beginnings.
Aragorn, you will love her forever, for even I am in love with her.
*
I see her alone at Rivendell, lost in that ocean green light.
She is looking out into the valley.
It is a valley of endings.
The world is breaking her heart, for she has grown sad and mortal.
And yet she still has hope!
Oh, would I had not seen it so, and so far into my pitious life!
*
Aragorn, take me home! For I have not had one.
My shield is my only companion.
Ask that elven princess to love me too,
before I come to my senses again ...
Or let me remember nothing of Rivendell
and the wistful valley grown from the mist of waterfalls
and her tears and all the light she sheds settled into its folds.
*
For I have not looked long into reflections and mirrors.
Yet when I see your strange eyes,
even if briefly, I see not myself, but I see all our futures.
I see you and the she-elf.
I see you love each other in the valley grown dark,
where there is neither light nor hope.
I do not need a final awakening.
So spare me this thought and hand me my armour,
for doom is near.
*
And you are now so distant from the lands I know,
you remain in a dream, to where I will not go ...
For I have cast the lie of beauty from my stony life
and all its wistful dying and sad departures.
*
I am the golden-haired warrior. The battle is eternal.
There will be no resting place,
either in the arms of a lover or within my heart.
*
The valley of slowly fading light is not for me.
*
Give me my helmet! I will show you the way!
So will we follow our army into the white city!
So do my dreams go into their night!
This way, young hobbit!
There will be no dawn for love within me! Today we fight!!!
