Your love is so very hard, my friend --
and so very dear.
Icicles that rain on my heart
offer a cool draught
once the sun of knowing rises;
Bitter grains of salt
make finely piquant
the dishes life sends after;
Harsh fire -- a great inferno --
transfigures my iron soul
into radiant shafts of light...
So very hard, my friend,
yet so dear.
