A shimmering lake in moonlight lay
Under the watchful eye of some mighty trees
A swan resided there, bound to the water through the passing of her days
Yet her appearance so compounded with grace and majesty

But every evening, as darkness fell upon this solemn scenery
And a thousand stars shaped the contours of a shapeless night
This graceful swan turned into the very substance of mortality
And became a girl, dressed in beauty faint and white  

As a man lost himself in wandering on one dark and misty night  
And panic blinding as the fallen night began to lead his tread
He happened upon this hidden lake; an illusion to his restless sight  
And heard the soft singing of a girl that roamed about the riverbed

And between them love did grow, sprung from the seeds of unexpectancy
And both gave up their hearts to this fair and loving night
Yet rising dawn lighted the way for sheer reality to see
That all things must once dissolve and come to light

For when daylight perched upon the lake, this girl became a swan once more
And being tied to the water, set her ability to love to bounds
Yet every twilight remembered her what she had been loving for
It is in the burning pain of the  impossibile that a love most fiery is found

And uncounted years they lived; years of love and purest grace
Never does sincere love consign to what the course of time can take  
For when it took the swan's white feathers and the pale beauty of her face    
She lay tenderly enclosed in the shimmering moonlight on a solemn lake