Oh my dearest from my heart I swear it,
I love you more than I can say.
But this life I can no longer bear it
And I can see no other way.
Oh do not think I reproved you,
You must know it in your heart
That it's best, oh God how I love you,
That it's best that we too should part.
Can I always be true and tender,
While my body is starved for bread?
Oh how hard it is not to surrender when love itself cries to be fed.
It would be in vain to discover
What I've done or what I'll do.
I leave you now, oh my lover,
Never to return to you.
It is hard for me to write this,
But I write it from my soul.
And I sign myself, despite this,
Forever yours, your Périchole
I shall laugh with other laughter,
I shall weep with other pain.
But if ever the chance here after,
I shall never love again.
