Annihilated (Ducasse)

      I was young, and had deep loves, and my heart would overflow with enthusiasm!
      And I mingled with the crowd, I mixed with my fellow men, speaking my thought out loud!
      And they gaped back at me, without understanding.
      And I withdrew from them, and they said to me: Arrogant one!
      And from time to time in my solitude, my loves, my repressed enthusiasms broke out into odes, conversation; and my companions laughed and used to point me out as a madman.
      So I suffered, doubted, cursed, and no one believed me sincere.
      It's as if this heart, once so full of strength and love, were annihilated.

Isidore Ducasse