Thoughts, wretched thoughts, Why strike me down so? Keep me awake, keep me aghast Thy torment is unparalleled. Emotion, dissolute emotion, A man must avoid at costs unspoken. Tear my walls, churn my gut, Thy burn has no soothing. Impulse, Desire and Yearning, O sisters three, mistresses of my nights, Much too fickle, reinless and free, What remedy cures thy sting? Maladies of the mind, Incorrigible disorders of the heart, Chain me up and rip me to shreds But do not let me succumb to hope. Hope, O merciful lady of mine, Blissful ignorance I crave from thee. Afraid, terrified, horror-stricken I am. Capricious thou are, I know not when Thy nature be true, or false, I know not, I cower from thee, distrustful. And yet it is precisely to hope that I cling, I flirt, frolic and find myself fond with thee .