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<h2>XVIII</h2>
<p>No: it is not yours to open buds into blossoms.</p>
<p>Shake the bud, strike it; it is beyond your power to make it blossom.</p>
<p>Your touch soils it, you tear its petals to pieces and strew them in the dust.</p>
<p>But no colours appear, and no perfume.</p>
<p>Ah! it is not for you to open the bud into a blossom.</p>
<p class="p1">
He who can open the bud does it so simply.</p>
<p>He gives it a glance, and the life-sap stirs through its veins.</p>
<p>At his breath the flower spreads its wings and flutters in the wind.</p>
<p>Colours flush out like heart-longings, the perfume betrays a sweet secret.</p>
<p>He who can open the bud does it so simply.</p>
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