Eight lines about a missed reconciliation. A tear was welling in her eyes; on his lips, a word of forgiveness. But pride spoke, she dried her tears, and his word died unsaid. Each went their own way.
The ending is among Bécquer's most quoted: when they think of the love they still have, she says to herself «Why did I stay silent that day?», and he «Why did I not weep?». Both know that a single gesture — a tear, a word — would have been enough not to lose each other, and both kept it back out of pride. It is Romanticism turned into an intimate reproach.
The verse is kept in Spanish. Translating it in passing would replace the work with a paraphrase of it.