Who Am I To You? (Italian Sonnet) Poem by Gert Strydom

(after Alexander Sergeyevich Pus)

Who am I as you whispered my name?
It was in a time now to you distant
but for you my love remains consistent,
and my heart-felt feelings are still the same.

In this marriage there is no one to blame,
where you do act towards me resistant
my love remains sincere and persistent.
In life I am searching for truth not for fame.

Am I like a person from another age,
or someone that you do not want to know?
Loosing you, to me brings great agony.
Am I a photo in your memory's page?
Who was I when you did with passion glow?
Who am I when you now do think of me?

(Reference: 'Lyric written in 1830' by Alexander Sergeyevich Pus.

Poet's note I am quoting this poem of his right here:


'Lyric written in 1830' by Alexander Sergeyevich Pus

'What means my name to you? ...T'will die
As does the melancholy murmur
Of distant waves or, of a summer,
The forest's hushed nocturnal sigh.'

'Found on a fading album page,
Dim will it seem and enigmatic,
Like words traced on a tomb, a relic
Of some long dead and vanished age.'

'What's in my name? ...Long since forgot,
Erased by new, tempestuous passion,
of tenderness 'twill leave you not
The lingering and sweet impression.'

'But in an hour of agony,
Pray, speak it, and recall my image,
And say, 'He still remembers me,
His heart alone still pays me homage.' '
© Gert Strydom