[Lyric] The Weighty Burden Of An Eternal Secret (Schammasch)

Over there in a grove surrounded by flowers slumbers the Hermaphrodite, sound asleep upon sward, drenched with his tears

The moon's disc is clear of the cloud mass and with pale beams she caresses this smooth youthful form

His features manifest the most manly vigour coeval with a heavenly virgin's grace

Nothing in him appears natural, not even the muscle of his body, which force their way across the harmonious contours of feminine forms

One arm curves over his forеhead, the other hand rеsts against his breast as if to repress the beat of a heart closed to all confidences, and fraught with The Weighty Burden of an Eternal Secret

Weary of life and ashamed to walk among beings who do not resemble him, despair has won his soul and he wanders alone like a beggar in the alley

How does he find the wherewithal to exist?

Compassionate souls watch over him closely, without his suspecting such surveillance, and do not abandon him: he is so good... so resigned

Sometimes he talks readily to those of sensitive disposition, without touching their hands, and standing his distance for fear of an imagined danger

If asked why he has taken solitude for companion, he raises his eyes heavenward and has difficulty holding back a tear of reproach against providence, but he does not answer this imprudent question, which sheds upon his snowy eyelids the blush of a morning rose