s: Though I myself can't rightly see it's any wus achokin' on 'em


s: How dreffle slick he reeled it off (like Blitz at our lyceum


s: Ahaulin' ribbins from his chops so quick you skeercely see 'em),


s: About the Anglo-Saxon race (an' saxons would be handy


s: To do the buryin' down here upon the Rio Grandy),


s: About our patriotic pas an' our star-spangled banner,


s: Our country's bird alookin' on an' singin' out hosanner,


s: An' how he (Mister B himself) wuz happy fer Ameriky--


s: I felt, ez sister Patience sez, a leetle mite histericky.


s: I felt, I swon, ez though it wuz a dreffle kind o' privilege


s: Atrampin' round thru Boston streets among the gutter's drivelage;


s: An' it did bonyfidy seem millanyum wuz acomin'


s: This 'ere's about the meanest place a skunk could wal diskiver


s: (Saltillo's Mexican, I b'lieve, fer wut we call Saltriver).


s: The sort o' trash a feller gits to eat doos beat all nater,


s: I'd give a year's pay fer a smell o' one good bluenose tater;


s: The country here thet Mister Bolles declared to be so charmin'


s: Throughout is swarmin' with the most alarmin' kind o' varmin'.


s: The holl on't 's mud an' prickly pears, with here an' there a


s: You see a feller peekin' out, an', fust you know, a lariat


s: Is round your throat en' you a copse, 'fore you can say, "Wut


s: The rigiment come up one day in time to stop a red bug


s: From runnin' off with Cunnle Wright--'t wuz jest a common


s: One night I started up on eend an' thought I wuz to hum agin,


s: I heern a horn, thinks I it's Sol the fisherman hez come agin,


s: HIS bellowses is sound enough--ez I'm a livin' creeter,


s: I felt a thing go thru my leg--'t wuz nothin' more 'n a skeeter!


s: Then there's the yaller fever, tu, they call it here el vomito--


s: Thet Mexicans worn't human beans*--an ourang outang nation,


s: *[Footnote: he means human beins, that's wut he means. I spose he


s: A sort o' folks a chap could kill an' never dream on't arter,


s: No more'n a feller'd dream o' pigs thet he hed hed to slarter;


s: I'd an idee thet they were built arter the darkle fashion all,


s: An' kickin' colored folks about, you know, 's a kind o' national


s: But when I jined I worn't so wise ez thet air queen o' Sheby,


s: Fer, come to look at 'em, they aint much diff'rent from wut we be


s: Ashelterin' 'em, ez Caleb sez, under our eagle's pinions,


s: "Wich means to take a feller up jest by the slack o' 's trowsis


s: An' walk him Spanish clean right out o' all his homes an' houses


s: Wal, it doos seem a curus way, but then hooraw fer Jackson!


s: It must be right, fer Caleb sez it's reg'lar Anglo-Saxon.


s: Bein' they haint no lead, they make their bullets out o' copper


s: (Guess wen he ketches 'em at thet he'll hev to git up airly),


s: Thet our nation's bigger 'n theirn an' so its rights air bigger,


s: An thet it's all to make 'em free that we air pullin' trigger,


s: Thet Anglo Saxondom's idee's abreakin' 'em to pieces,


s: An' thet idee's thet every man doos jest wut he damn pleases;


s: Ef I don't make his meanin' clear, perhaps in some respex I can,


s: An' there's another thing I know, an' thet is, ef these creeturs,


s: Should come to Jaalam Center fer to argify an' spout on't,


s: The gals 'ould count the silver spoons the minnit they cleared


s: This goin' ware glory waits ye haint one agreeable feetur,


s: An' ef it worn't fer wakin' snakes, I'd home agin short meter;


s: O, wouldn't I be off, quick time, ef't worn't thet I wuz sartin


s: They'd let the daylight into me to pay me fer desartin!


s: I don't approve o' tellin' tales, but jest to you I may state


s: Our ossifers aint wut they wuz afore they left the Baystate


s: Then it wuz "Mister Sawin, sir, you're middlin' well now, be ye?


s: Step up an' take a nipper, sir; I'm dreffle glad to see ye;"


s: But now it's "Ware's my eppylet? here, Sawin, step an fetch it!


s: An' mind your eye, be thund'rin' spry, or, damn ye, you shall


s: Wal, ez the Doctor sez, some pork will bile so, but by mighty,


s: Ef I bed some on 'em to hum, I'd give 'em linkum vity,


s: These Anglosaxon ossifers--wal, taint no use ajawin',


s: Thet blurts right out wut's in his head,


s: But (wile there's doubt) I stick to both;


s: Ez preudunt statesmun say, who've planned


s: Thet's fair an' square an' parpendicler,


s: O' course, you know, it's sheer an' sheer


s: Thet bombshells, grape, an' powder 'n' ball


s: The ole queen's arm thet gran'ther Young


s: On going forth last night, a friend to see,


s: Then thus to him--"Were it not better, far,


s: 'T were happier for your family, I guess,


s: Besides, all drunkards, when policemen see 'em,


s: 'Me drunk!" the cobbler cried, "the devil trouble you


s: If drain I've had!" (the lying s-n-O-B!)


s: I've just return'd from a tee-total party,


s: Twelve on us jamm'd in a spring c-a-R-P.


s: The man as lectured, now, WAS drunk; why, bless ye,


s: A pair on 'em--hisself and his good lady;--


s: (My eye and Betty! what weak mortals WE are;


s: They said they took but ginger b-e-E-R!)


s: But as for me, I've stuck ('t was rather ropy)


s: And now we've had this little bit o' sparrin',


s: What! then you won't accept it, wont you? Oh!


s: No matter; pshaw! my heart is breaking, though.


s: 'Tis true I once had hoped; but now, alas!


s: Well, well; 'tis over now, and let it pass.


s: You won't accept it! Let me dream you will:


s: But that were idle. Shall we meet again?


s: Why should we? Water for my burning brain?


s: I could have loved thee--Could! I love thee yet


s: Oblivion's balm, oh tell me where to find!


s: Smile, lady, smile! (BLESS ME! WHAT'S THAT?


s: YOUR RIGHT TO STOP ME)--breathe soft sighs.


s: Grant but one look from those dear eyes--


s: We'll wander by the river's placid flow--


s: LEAVE ME ALONE!)--and talk of love's delight.


s: Faster than jockey outside a race-horse:


s: With time bills mismanaged, fast trains after slow,


s: I have found out a gig-gig-gift for my fuf-fuf-fair,


s: I have found where the rattle-snakes bub-bub-breed;


s: Will you co-co-come, and I'll show you the bub-bub-bear,


s: And the lions and tit-tit-tigers at fuf-fuf-feed.


s: Makes mum-mum-melody through the sweet vale;


s: Where the mum-monkeys gig-gig-grin all the day long


s: Or gracefully swing by the tit-tit-tit-tail.


s: You shall pip-pip-play, dear, some did-did-delicate joke


s: With the bub-bub-bear on the tit-tit-top of his pip-pip-pip-pole;


s: You shall see the huge elephant pip-pip-play,


s: You shall gig-gig-gaze on the stit-stit-stately racoon;


s: And then did-did-dear, together we'll stray


s: To the cage of the bub-bub-blue-faced bab-bab-boon.


s: And I lul-lul-loved you the m-m-more for the wish)


s: To witness the bub-bub-beautiful pip-pip-pel-


s: ican swallow the l-l-live little fuf-fuf-fish!


s: Oh dem that absawd Cwystal Palace! alas,


s: What a pity they took off the duty on glass!


s: Was en-ti-a-ly owing to that foolish act.


s: Wha-evew they put it a cwowd it will dwaw,


s: And that is the weason I think it a baw;


s: I have no gweat dislike to the building, as sutch;


s: The People is what I object to sa mutch.


s: The People!--I weally am sick of the wawd:


s: Wha-evaw they go, it is always the case,


s: They are shaw to destroy all the chawm of the place.


s: Their voices are loud, and their laughter is hawse;


s: Their fealyaws are fabsy, iwegulaw, cause;


s: How seldom it is that their faces disclose,


s: They have dull heavy looks, which appeaw to expwess


s: Disagweeable stwuggles with common distwess;


s: The People can't dwess, doesn't know how to walk.


s: And would uttaly wuin a spot like the Pawk.


s: That I hate the People is maw than I 'll say;


s: I only would have them kept out of my way,


s: Let them stay at the pot-house, wejoice in the pipe,


s: And wegale upon beeaw, baked patatas, and twipe.


s: We must have the People--of that tha's no doubt--


s: In shawt they could not be, pahaps, done without.


s: If'twa not faw the People we could not have Boots


s: Tha's no doubt that they exawcise useful pasuits.


s: A long distance off; but I don t like them neeaw;


s: The slams is the place faw a popula show;


s: Don't encouwage the people to spoil Wotten Wow.


s: It is odd that the DUKE OF AWGYLL could pasue,


s: So eccentwic a cawse, and LAD SHAFTESBUWY too,


s: As to twy and pwesawve the Glass House on its site,


s: Faw no weason on awth but the People's delight.


s: My wawst feaws are wealized; the Op wa is na maw,


s: And the wain of DONIZETTI and TAPISCHOWE are aw!


s: No entapwising capitalist bidding faw the lot,


s: Fahwell to Anna Bolena; to Nauma, oh, fahwell!


s: Adieu to La Sonnambula! the hamma wings haw knell;


s: I Puwitani, too, must cease a cwowded house to dwaw,


s: And they've knocked down lovely Lucia, the Bwide of Lammamaw.


s: Fahwell the many twinkling steps; fahwell the gwaceful fawm


s: That bounded o'er the wose-beds, and that twipped amid the stawm;


s: Faw the Times assauts the wawdwobe went--just fancy--as old wags!


s: That ev'wy thing that's bwight must fade, we know is vewy twue,


s: And now we see what sublunawy glowwy must come to;


s: Now that HAW MAJESTY'S Theataw is in cawse of being sold.


s: Between you and me and the old blind oss


s: And the doctor says there ain't no cure.


s: D' ye think I care for the blessed Bench?--


s: In course you ain't heerd about my marridge--


s: The QUEEN'S eye winks--it ain't no sell--


s: Hit in the vind!--I'm chokin--give us air--


s: My fare? Ha, ha! My fare? Ho, ho! My fare?


s: Call that my fare for drivin yer a mile?


s: There's sunthin the matter with my sight--


s: poetical writers as a kind of current coin.


s: "Bolt?" she falter'd, "from the gov'nor?


s: Pierc'd her heart, and let the life out--


s: "Pearly drops of dew we drink."--OLD SONG.


s: nobody else's, so frequently met with in OVID and others.


s: thee."--SHAKESPEARE, and the dramatists generally.


s: They're sure to trust in your conwersion,


s: Which they, in course, believes 'as been


s: You shakes your 'ead, turns up your eyes,


s: Wherein you moans, and groans, and sighs,


s: First to the left, and then t' other way;


s: All hale! thou mighty annimil--all hale!


s: You are 4 thousand pounds, and am purty wel


s: Perporshund, thou tremenjos boveen nuggit!


s: Wos little, and if yure muther wud no you now


s: That you've grone so long, and thick, and phat;


s: Or if yure father would rekognize his ofspring


s: And his kaff, thou elefanteen quodrupid!


s: I wonder if it hurts you mutch to be so big,


s: I spose wen you wos young tha didn't gin


s: You skim milk but all the kreme you kud stuff


s: How big yude gro; and afterward tha no doubt


s: With perhaps an occasional punkin or squosh!


s: In all probability yu don't no yure enny


s: Bigger than a small kaff; for if you did,


s: Yude brake down fences and switch your tail,


s: Wud maik nigh unto a barrel of ox-tail soop,


s: And cudn't a heep of stakes be cut oph yu,


s: Whitch, with salt and pepper and termater


s: But I must klose, O most prodijus reptile!


s: And for mi admirashun of yu, when yu di,


s: I'le rite a node unto yore peddy and remanes,


s: Pernouncin' yu the largest of yure race;


s: And as I don't expect to have a half a dollar


s: Agin to spare for to pa to look at yu, and as


s: I ain't a ded head, I will sa, farewell.


s: And try what strength of parts would do.


s: At first creeps, like his fellow creature,


s: Who has four legs, then two, then three;


s: By birth I'm a slave, yet can give you a crown,


s: I dispose of all honors, myself having none:


s: I'm obliged by just maxims to govern my life,


s: Yet I hang my own master, and lie with his wife.


s: When men are a-gaming I cunningly sneak,


s: And their cudgels and shovels away from them take.


s: Pair maidens and ladies I by the hand get,


s: And pick off their diamonds, tho' ne'er so well set.


s: For when I have comrades we rob in whole bands,


s: Then presently take off your lands from your hands.


s: But, this fury once over, I've such winning arts,


s: That you love me much more than you do your own hearts.


s: Form'd half beneath, and half above the earth,


s: The smith's and carpenter's adopted daughters,


s: Made on the land, to travel on the waters.


s: Swifter they move, as they are straiter bound,


s: Yet neither tread the air, or wave, or ground:


s: They serve the poor for use, the rich for whim,


s: Sink when it rains, and when it freezes swim.


s: Let lawyers bawl and strain their throats


s: Though hundreds have employ'd their leisure,


s: There's neither chariot, coach, nor mill,


s: And then, with heart more hard than s one,


s: With cooling gales like zephyrs fraught.


s: Begotten, and born, and dying with noise,


s: The terror of women, and pleasure of boys,


s: Like the fiction of poets concerning the wind,


s: I'm chiefly unruly when strongest confined.


s: For silver and gold I don't trouble my head,


s: Except when I trade with a ship or a town,


s: One property more I would have you remark,


s: The moment I get one my soul's all a-fire,


s: And I roar out my joy, and in transport expire.


s: From Heaven I fall, though from earth I begin.


s: I'm bright as an angel, and light as a feather,


s: But heavy and dark, when you squeeze me together.


s: Though candor and truth in my aspect I bear,


s: Yet many poor creatures I help to insnare.


s: Though so much of Heaven appears in my make,


s: The mother the daughter, the daughter the mother.


s: When dosed with smoke, and smear'd with snuff;


s: Yet the plain 'squire, when dinner's done,


s: Yet neither smell, see, taste, nor hear.


s: ALLINGHAM, WILLIAM--An American writer; contributor to "Putnam's


s: "Of Anon," says Punch, "but little is known, though his works are


s: "Anon is one of our greatest authors. If all the things which are


s: affected, the Bank of England suspending cash payments, mutinies


s: AYTOUN, WILLIAM--Professor of Polite Literature in the Edinburg


s: BARHAM, REV. RICHARD HARRIS--Author of the celebrated "Ingoldsby


s: "The fact is, sir, you are too LATE for me."


s: "Too late?" exclaimed the astonished tutor.


s: Very early in life Mr. Barham became an occasional contributor to


s: Mr. Barham died at London on the 17th of June, 1845, in the


s: fifty-seventh year of his age. He was an extremely amiable,


s: benevolent character. It does not appear that his love of the


s: faithful and kindly pastor, never so much in his element as when


s: ministering to the distresses, or healing the differences of his


s: Ingoldsby (Barham), Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Milnes, and many


s: others, of scarcely less note, found in Blackwood scope for their


s: BUTLER, SAMUEL--Born in 1612; the son of a substantial farmer in


s: BYROM--A noted English Jacobite. Born 1691.


s: published the verses on Rogers. They met like the handsome women


s: CHAUCER lived in the thirteenth century, dying in 1400. He is


s: designated the father of English poetry. The obsolete phraseology


s: undefiled" as it is, was written in the decline of life, when its


s: generations of "gentlemen," and still exert great influence.


s: CLEVELAND, JOHN--A political writer of Charles the First's time;


s: LAMB, CHARLES--Born in London, 1775; died, 1832. As a humorous


s: LANDOR, WALTER SAVAGE--A living English writer of considerable


s: LINDSAY--A friend of Dean Swift. A polite and elegant scholar; an


s: superiors, and it is said that a large number of his impromptu


s: successful, and indeed on the point of being abandoned as a bad


s: silhouette cuts, after the style of those in similar French


s: Hercules," "Autobiography of Tom Thumb," "Mrs. Caudle's Curtain


s: publication of the "Caudle Lectures," "Punch" reached the highest


s: Albert Smith's contributions to the pages of "Punch," were the


s: Macaronic. He is now a London magistrate, and PAR EXCELLENCE, the


s: somewhat different fashion by a'Beckett in his "Comic History of


s: England"), he, besides miscellaneous writings, produced the "Snob


s: circumstance of a May-fair footman achieving sudden affluence by


s: During the last five years, other writers, among which may be


s: enumerated the Mayhew brothers, Mr. Tom Taylor, Angus Reach, and


s: almighty "Times," that glory and shame of English journalism, on


s: merited) the significant honor of being denied admission to the


s: dominions of continental monarchs. Louis Philippe interdicted its


s: haveachieved permanent popularity, and future attempts would most


s: attended with similar failure, as "Punch" has a firm hold on the


s: twenty-nine volumes, with their ample store of pictorial mirth of


s: "Urged forward by our hurry, and trusting to chance, two very bad


s: "This was discouraging enough. If the most experienced publishers


s: accordingly; and as new editions of the 'Rejected Addresses' were


s: The authors add, that not one of the poets whom they "audaciously


s: "It may not be amiss to notice, in this place, one criticism of a


s: James Smith died in London on the 29th of December, 1836, in the


s: SAXE, JOHN G--Editor of the "Burlington Gazette," and "Wandering


s: SMITH, HORACE--See "Rejected Addresses."


s: Salad," and an epigram, we have found no comic verses by him. He


s: language. They have, however, the negative virtue of being nowise


s: Later in life Dr. Wolcott removed to London, where he died at an


s: That drove in gusts down the common's centre


s: In the sheepfold's lath-and-plaster entry,


s: From the common's self thro' the paling-gaps


s: --They house in the gravel-pits perhaps,


s: Where the road stops short with its safeguard border


s: But the most turned in yet more abruptly


s: Where the town's bad blood once slept corruptly,


s: And leads into day again,--its priestliness


s: Lending itself to hide their beastliness


s: So cleverly (thanks in part to the mason),


s: And putting so cheery a whitewashed face on


s: That, where you cross the common as I did,


s: "Mount Zion" with Love-lane at the back of it,


s: As, bound for the hills, her fate averted,


s: Well, from the road, the lanes or the common,


s: A wreck of whalebones; then, with snort,


s: Like a startled horse, at the interloper


s: Little old-faced peaking sister-turned-mother


s: From the cold, on her breast, the one warm place;


s: She too must stop, wring the poor ends dry


s: Which yet she seemed to grudge I should stand on:


s: Then, stooping down to take off her pattens,


s: She bore them defiantly, in each hand one,


s: And its babe, as good as a lance in rest.


s: With lips as much too white, as a streak


s: And it seemed the very door-hinge pitied


s: Holding at least its tongue for the nonce.


s: Then a tall yellow man, like the Penitent Thief,


s: With his jaw bound up in a handkerchief,


s: And, except from him, from each that entered,


s: "To take with us, the elect, your station?


s: As of huntsman giving his hounds the tallyho.


s: And, when the door's cry drowned their wonder,


s: The draught, it always sent in shutting,


s: Made the flame of the single tallow candle


s: In the cracked square lantern I stood under,


s: As it were, the luckless cause of scandal:


s: (In the chapel's secret, too!) for spite


s: Would shudder itself clean off the wick,


s: With the airs of a Saint John's Candlestick.


s: "Good folks," thought I, as resolve grew stronger,


s: "This way you perform the Grand-Inquisitor


s: "When the weather sends you a chance visitor?


s: "You are the men, and wisdom shall die with you,


s: "And none of the old Seven Churches vie with you!


s: "But still, despite the pretty perfection


s: "To which you carry your trick of exclusiveness,


s: "And, taking God's word under wise protection,


s: "And bid one reach it over hot ploughshares,--


s: "Still, as I say, though you've found salvation,


s: "If I should choose to cry, as now, 'Shares!'--


s: "See if the best of you bars me my ration!


s: "I prefer, if you please, for my expounder


s: "Of the laws of the feast, the feast's own Founder;


s: "Mine's the same right with your poorest and sickliest


s: "Supposing I don the marriage vestiment:


s: "So shut your mouth and open your Testament,


s: "And carve me my portion at your quickliest!"


s: And wet apron wound round his waist like a rope,


s: (After stopping outside, for his cough was bad,


s: To get the fit over, poor gentle creature,


s: At the shutting door, and entered likewise,


s: Received the hinge's accustomed greeting,


s: And crossed the threshold's magic pentacle,


s: Which, calling its flock to their special clover,


s: Whose lot, as the weather pleased, was mine.


s: And my neighbour's coat, the greasy cuff of it,


s: Were a pebble-stone that a child's hand poises,


s: Compared with the pig-of-lead-like pressure


s: Of the preaching man's immense stupidity,


s: As he poured his doctrine forth, full measure,


s: To guess the cause of it all, in a twinkling:


s: (Whene'er 'twas the thought first struck him,


s: The gin-shop's light in hell's grim drench)


s: Than he handled it so, in fine irreverence,


s: And, a patchwork of chapters and texts in severance,


s: Not improved by the private dog's-ears and creases,


s: Having clothed his own soul with, he'd fain see equipt yours,--


s: So tossed you again your Holy Scriptures.


s: And you picked them up, in a sense, no doubt:


s: Nay, had but a single face of my neighbours


s: Appeared to suspect that the preacher's labours


s: Were help which the world could be saved without,


s: 'Tis odds but I might have borne in quiet


s: Or (who can tell?) perchance even mustered


s: Somewhat to urge in behalf of the sermon:


s: But the flock sat on, divinely flustered,


s: And thumb round thumb went twirling faster,


s: While she, to his periods keeping measure,


s: The man with the handkerchief untied it,


s: And rocked himself as the woman was doing.


s: The shoemaker's lad, discreetly choking,


s: Kept down his cough. 'Twas too provoking!


s: My gorge rose at the nonsense and stuff of it;


s: So, saying like Eve when she plucked the apple,


s: "I wanted a taste, and now there's enough of it,"


s: Of the flying moon, by the shifting tints,


s: Like furnace-smoke just ere flames bellow,


s: Just by the chapel, a break in the railing


s: 'Tis ever dry walking there, on the moss--


s: Besides, you go gently all the way uphill.


s: My head grew lighter, my limbs more supple,


s: As I walked on, glad to have slipt the fetter.


s: My mind was full of the scene I had left,


s: That placid flock, that pastor vociferant,


s: --How this outside was pure and different!


s: Its fellow had coloured the whole distinctly;


s: And the truths, quite true if stated succinctly,


s: But as surely false, in their quaint presentment,


s: However to pastor and flock's contentment!


s: Say rather, such truths looked false to your eyes,


s: With his provings and parallels twisted and twined,


s: Till how could you know them, grown double their size


s: In the natural fog of the good man's mind,


s: Like yonder spots of our roadside lamps,


s: Truth remains true, the fault's in the prover;


s: And yet, and yet, yet, fifty times over,


s: Although, as our preacher thus embellished it,


s: They did not prefer our friend to Joseph?


s: But so it is everywhere, one way with all of them!


s: These people have really felt, no doubt,


s: A something, the motion they style the Call of them;


s: And this is their method of bringing about,


s: The mood itself, which strengthens by using;


s: And how that happens, I understand well.


s: Out of the thump-thump and shriek-shriek


s: Of the train, as I came by it, up from Manchester;


s: And when, next week, I take it back again,


s: My head will sing to the engine's clack again,


s: While it only makes my neighbour's haunches stir,


s: 'Tis the taught already that profits by teaching;


s: He gets no more from the railway's preaching


s: Than, from this preacher who does the rail's office, I:


s: Whom therefore the flock cast a jealous eye on.


s: Still, why paint over their door "Mount Zion,"


s: To which all flesh shall come, saith the prophecy?


s: But wherefore be harsh on a single case?


s: After how many modes, this Christmas Eve,


s: Does the self-same weary thing take place?


s: But scarce to be swallowed without wincing


s: And in this church my faith sprang first!


s: (I said, as I reached the rising ground,


s: From the heart beneath, as if, God speeding me,


s: I entered his church-door, nature leading me)


s: Yet felt in my heart, amid all its sense


s: That his love, there too, was the nobler dower.


s: You know what I mean: God's all, man's nought:


s: Of its fitness for aught but praise and prayer,


s: And, looking to God who ordained divorce


s: Of the rock from his boundless continent,


s: O'er the power God gave man in the mould.


s: For, note: man's hand, first formed to carry


s: A few pounds' weight, when taught to marry


s: Its strength with an engine's, lifts a mountain,


s: But love is the ever-springing fountain:


s: For the water's play, but the water-head--


s: As easy create it, as cause it to cease;


s: --Not life, to wit, for a few short years,


s: Tracking his way through doubts and fears,


s: No: love which, on earth, amid all the shows of it,


s: Has ever been seen the sole good of life in it,


s: The love, ever growing there, spite of the strife in it.


s: Shall arise, made perfect, from death's repose of it,


s: How in all I loved here, still wast thou!


s: Whom pressing to, then, as I fain would now,


s: The love, thy gift, as my spirit's wonder


s: With this sky of thine, that I now walk under,


s: The rain and the wind ceased, and the sky


s: Deep in the West; while, bare and breathless,


s: For a glorious thing that, dauntless, deathless,


s: From heaven to heaven extending, perfect


s: As the mother-moon's self, full in face.


s: Which still, in the rising, were compressed,


s: And supreme the spectral creature lorded


s: But above night too, like only the next,


s: Till the heaven of heavens were circumflexed,


s: This sight was shown me, there and then,--


s: Throughout its whole mass, over and under


s: "Where two or three should meet and pray,


s: "He would be in their midst, their friend;


s: Then rushed the blood back, cold and clear,


s: And I hastened, cried out while I pressed


s: "His power, didst hear me place his love,


s: "And that was leaving the world for thee.


s: "I thought it best that thou, the spirit,


s: "What is it to thee, who curest sinning?


s: "I have looked to thee from the beginning,


s: "Straight up to thee through all the world


s: As when the bleacher spreads, to seethe it


s: Steeps in the flood of noontide whiteness


s: With my senses settling fast and steadying,


s: But my body caught up in the whirl and drift


s: Of the vesture's amplitude, still eddying


s: On, just before me, still to be followed,


s: What shall I say?--as a path were hollowed


s: And a man went weltering through the ocean,


s: Darkness and cold were cloven, as through


s: And so we crossed the world and stopped.


s: To the breast of... what is it, yon building,


s: With marble for brick, and stones of price


s: Before my eyes, in the light of the moon,


s: Was in Rome this night, and stood, and knew


s: With popes and kings in their porphyry wombs,


s: Their faith's heart beats, though her head swims


s: From propping mine. Though Rome's gross yoke


s: Even where, to man's, the whole seems dark,


s: To guide my footsteps through life's maze,


s: My heart cried--What has been abusing me


s: That I should wait here lonely and coldly,


s: Her veils of lies as they choose to shift?


s: From the spark preserved by the trampled sect,


s: They glanced a thought above the toes of,


s: Love, surely, from that music's lingering,


s: To hog-grunts, praises to horse-neighings.


s: Love shut our eyes, and all seemed right.


s: Some few that keep Love's zone unbuckled,


s: When she would have them creep, stand steady


s: Whether sublimed, to the surprise of them,


s: Mere perfect form and faultless features.


s: What? with all Rome here, whence to levy


s: They take, as it were, a padlock, clap it tight


s: On the glories of their ancient reading,


s: On the beauties of their modern singing,


s: On the wonders of the builder's bringing,


s: And, all these loves, late struggling incessant,


s: When faith has at last united and bound them,


s: Why, I will, on the whole, be rather proud of it,--


s: To the other recipients who might have allowed it,


s: I will rejoice that God had the preference.


s: Will accept the provision, nothing loth,


s: --Will feast my love, then depart elsewhere,


s: And ponder, O soul, the while thou departest,


s: And see them applaud the great heart of the artist,


s: Of the block of marble he has to fashion


s: Complete from head to foot of the life-size,


s: Such as old Adam stood in his wife's eyes,--


s: But, now and then, bravely aspires to consummate


s: A Colossus by no means so easy to come at,


s: And uses the whole of his block for the bust,


s: Leaving the mind of the public to finish it,


s: On the face alone he expends his devotion,


s: He rather would mar than resolve to diminish it,


s: --Saying, "Applaud me for this grand notion


s: "Of what a face may be! As for completing it


s: "In breast and body and limbs, do that, you!"


s: All hail! I fancy how, happily meeting it,


s: A trunk and legs would perfect the statue,


s: Could man carve so as to answer volition.


s: Were a hope to find, in my spirit-travels,


s: Who, having a block to carve, no bigger,


s: Has spent his power on the opposite quest,


s: And believed to begin at the feet was best--


s: For so may I see, ere I die, the whole figure!


s: And still, as before, I was walking swift,


s: With my senses settling fast and steadying,


s: But my body caught up in the whirl and drift


s: Of the vesture's amplitude, still eddying


s: On just before me, still to be followed,


s: --What shall I say?--as a path, were hollowed,


s: And a man went weltering through the ocean,


s: It may be... though which, I can't affirm... any


s: Of the famous middle-age towns of Germany:


s: And this flight of stairs where I sit down,


s: On benches, waiting what's to see there:


s: Which, holding still by the vesture's hem,


s: With any that call themselves his friends;


s: All settle themselves, the while ascends


s: By the creaking rail to the lecture-desk,


s: The hawk-nosed high-cheek-boned Professor.


s: A shoot of love from my heart to the man--


s: As he uttered a kind of cough-preludious


s: (Beside some spitting that made me sorry)


s: With a wan pure look, well-nigh celestial,--


s: While, under the foot they could not smutch,


s: And a pin might be heard drop half a mile hence,--


s: Let the eyes stream out like lamps from cells,


s: Of undressed tow, for colour and quantity--


s: (As our own Young England adjusts a jaunty tie


s: When about to impart, on mature digestion,


s: Some thrilling view of the surplice-question)


s: --The Professor's grave voice, sweet though hoarse,


s: To do which, aimed this eve's discourse;


s: (Since plainly no such life was livable)


s: Had, by slow and sure degrees, translated it


s: Which, when reason had strained and abated it


s: Whose work was worthy a man's endeavour:


s: Work, that gave warrant almost sufficient


s: As it gives to us, for as frankly receiving


s: His word, their tradition,--which, though it meant


s: In their simplicity thought and averred it,


s: Was he not surely the first to insist on


s: Here the lecturer came to a pausing-place.


s: And while his cough, like a drouthy piston,


s: Tried to dislodge the husk that grew to him,


s: I seized the occasion of bidding adieu to him,


s: Each, that thus sets the pure air seething,


s: Of the God in Christ, be all that's left)


s: You urge Christ's followers' simplicity:


s: The stumbling-block, his speech--who laid it?


s: Christ's goodness, then--does that fare better?


s: As, more his hands hauled nets, they hardened,--


s: Compose Christ's flock! They, you and I,


s: Choose which; then tell me, on what ground


s: What we should follow, and whence flinch,--


s: Of right and wrong,--and had such guessing


s: *[Footnote: Gimel, the Hebrew G, means camel.]


s: I would praise such a Christ, with pride


s: His crown, I'd say, for the world's sake--


s: "The heart and head of each, what screen


s: "That these found truth out at a glance,


s: "He boasts, which other birds must shift


s: Distinguish kinds: do crownings, clothings,


s: And what, when all's done, shall be said


s: That one's made Christ, this other, Pilate,


s: Take all in a word: the truth in God's breast


s: Lies trace for trace upon curs impressed:


s: We are made in his image to witness him:


s: The light of heaven from the dark of hell,


s: Though justice, good and truth were still


s: Law through the worlds, and right misnamed.


s: Should win you to give it worship, therefore:


s: And, if no better proof you will care for,


s: --Whom do you count the worst man upon earth?


s: Be sure, he knows, in his conscience, more


s: In the best man's acts that we bow before:


s: This last knows better--true, but my fact is,


s: 'Tis one thing to know, and another to practise.


s: And thence I conclude that the real God-function


s: And such an injunction and such a motive


s: As the God in Christ, do you waive, and "heady,


s: What is the point where himself lays stress?


s: "For the first time?"--or, "Believe in me,


s: The same to his heart and for mere love's sake


s: Could my soul find aught to sing in tune with


s: With the lurking drop of blood that lies


s: As the lecturer makes his special boast!


s: If love's dead there, it has left a ghost.


s: And how when the Critic had done his best,


s: And the pearl of price, at reason's test,


s: When we looked for the inference and monition


s: That our faith, reduced to such condition,


s: Be swept forthwith to its natural dust-hole,--


s: Take back our faith,--if it be not just whole,


s: Yet a pearl indeed, as his tests affect it,


s: Which fact pays damage done rewardingly,


s: So, prize we our dust and ashes accordingly!


s: Surely for this I may praise you, my brother!


s: Will you take the praise in tears or laughter?


s: That's one point gained: can I compass another?


s: Can't we respect your loveless learning?


s: Or curing the halt and maimed 'Iketides,'


s: While we lounged on at our indebted ease:


s: --And you, the audience, who might ravage


s: More than Herr Heine (before his fever),--


s: As say my passion's wings are furled up,


s: I were ready and glad to give the world up--


s: But still, when you rub brow meticulous,


s: If not for God's, for your own sake solely,


s: --God forbid I should find you ridiculous!


s: Deduce from this lecture all that eases you,


s: Nay, call yourselves, if the calling pleases you,


s: "Christians,"--abhor the deist's pravity,--


s: Go on, you shall no more move my gravity


s: By hinting that their stick's a mock horse,


s: And they really carry what they say carries them.


s: From further tracking and trying and testing.


s: "One trims the bark 'twixt shoal and shelf,


s: "And sees, each side, the good effects of it,


s: "Not watch my neighbour's faith with fretfulness,


s: "Teaching that both our faiths (though duller


s: "His shine through a dull spirit's prism)


s: "Through ancient and through modern times


s: --'Twas the horrible storm began afresh!


s: No mere mote's-breadth but teems immense


s: Where one heard noise, and one saw flame,


s: It drops the remark, with just-turned head


s: As a conscript's lot from the lap's black yawn,


s: Stumbling, mute-mazed, at nature's chance,


s: To fight from, where his foot was found;


s: From the safe glad rear, to the dreadful van!


s: Soul of mine, hadst thou caught and held


s: Was lapped again in its folds full-fraught


s: For scarce had the words escaped my tongue,


s: How else was I found there, bolt upright


s: --Never flung out on the common at night,


s: Nor met the storm and wedge-like cleft it,


s: Seen the raree-show of Peter's successor,


s: There sat my friend, the yellow and tall,


s: With his neck and its wen in the selfsame place;


s: Yet my nearest neighbour's cheek showed gall.


s: And the old fat woman, late so placable,


s: Eyed me with symptoms hardly mistakable,


s: In short, a spectator might have fancied


s: Through the heads of the sermon, nine in number,


s: And woke up now at the tenth and lastly.


s: But again, could such disgrace have happened?


s: Each friend at my elbow had surely nudged it;


s: And, as for the sermon, where did my nap end?


s: Unless I heard it, could I have judged it?


s: First, the preacher speaks through his nose:


s: Great news! the preacher is found no Pascal,


s: Whom, if I pleased, I might to the task call


s: Great news! the sermon proves no reading


s: Where bee-like in the flowers I bury me,


s: And now that I know the very worst of him,


s: What was it I thought to obtain at first of him?


s: And return with another thing instead?--


s: "While thou, I know, dost laugh at dearth,


s: "The world with the leap of a river-pulse,--


s: "Therefore I turned from the oozings muddy,


s: "And bring thee a chalice I found, instead;


s: "See the brave veins in the breccia ruddy!


s: "One would suppose that the marble bled.


s: "What matters the water? A hope I have nursed:


s: "The waterless cup will quench my thirst."


s: --Better have knelt at the poorest stream


s: That trickles in pain from the straitest rift!


s: For the less or the more is all God's gift,


s: Who blocks up or breaks wide the granite-seam.


s: And here, is there water or not, to drink?


s: Taking God's help, have attained to think


s: My heart does best to receive in meekness


s: That mode of worship, as most to his mind,


s: Pass, as they list, to earth from heaven.


s: It were to be wished the flaws were fewer


s: But the main thing is, does it hold good measure?


s: Heaven soon sets right all other matters!--


s: This flesh worn out to rags and tatters,


s: Which an empire gained were a loss without.


s: Turned sick at last of to-day's buffoonery,


s: In the bloody orgies of drunk poltroonery!


s: At Gottingen presently, when, in the dusk


s: Of his life, if his cough, as I fear, should increase,


s: When thicker and thicker the darkness fills


s: And he gropes for something more substantial


s: Than a fable, myth or personification,--


s: May Christ do for him what no mere man shall,


s: And stand confessed as the God of salvation!


s: While attacking the choice of my neighbours round,


s: With none of my own made--I choose here!


s: Thinking that merely to touch in brevity


s: Or worse, that I trench, with undue levity,


s: On the bounds of the holy and the awful,--


s: I praise the heart, and pity the head of him,


s: And refer myself to THEE, instead of him,


s: Prove that the soul's depths boil in earnest!


s: May truth shine out, stand ever before us!


s: To Hepzibah Tune, without further apology,


s: The last five verses of the third section


s: Of the seventeenth hymn of Whitfield's Collection,


s: Translated by the author from the original Bengali


s: SERVANT.  Have mercy upon your servant, my queen!


s: QUEEN.  The assembly is over and my servants are all gone.  Why


s: SERVANT.  When you have finished with others, that is my time.


s: I come to ask what remains for your last servant to do.


s: QUEEN.  What can you expect when it is too late?


s: SERVANT.  Make me the gardener of your flower garden.


s: I will throw my swords and lances down in the dust.  Do not send


s: me to distant courts; do not bid me undertake new conquests.


s: But make me the gardener of your flower garden.


s: SERVANT.  The service of your idle days.


s: I will keep fresh the grassy path where you walk in the morning,


s: where your feet will be greeted with praise at every step by


s: I will swing you in a swing among the branches of the


s: _saptaparna_, where the early evening moon will struggle


s: I will replenish with scented oil the lamp that burns by your


s: bedside, and decorate your footstool with sandal and saffron


s: QUEEN.  What will you have for your reward?


s: SERVANT.  To be allowed to hold your little fists like tender


s: lotus-buds and slip flower chains over your wrists; to tinge


s: the soles of your feet with the red juice of _ashoka_


s: petals and kiss away the speck of dust that may chance to


s: QUEEN.  Your prayers are granted, my servant, you will be the


s: "Ah, poet, the evening draws near; your hair is turning grey.


s: "Do you in your lonely musing hear the message of the hereafter?"


s: "It is evening," the poet said, "and I am listening because some


s: one may call from the village, late though it be.


s: "I watch if young straying hearts meet together, and two pairs of


s: "Who is there to weave their passionate songs, if I sit on the


s: shore of life and contemplate death and the beyond?


s: "The glow of a funeral pyre slowly dies by the silent river.


s: "Jackals cry in chorus from the courtyard of the deserted house


s: "If some wanderer, leaving home, come here to watch the night and


s: there to whisper the secrets of life into his ears if I,


s: shutting my doors, should try to free myself from mortal bonds?


s: "It is a trifle that my hair is turning grey.


s: "I am ever as young or as old as the youngest and the oldest of


s: "Some have smiles, sweet and simple, and some a sly twinkle in


s: "Some have tears that well up in the daylight, and others tears


s: They all have need for me, and I have no time to brood over the


s: "I am of an age with each, what matter if my hair turns grey?"


s: In the morning I cast my net into the sea.


s: I dragged up from the dark abyss things of strange aspect and


s: strange beauty--some shone like a smile, some glistened like


s: tears, and some were flushed like the cheeks of a bride.


s: When with the day's burden I went home, my love was sitting in


s: the garden idly tearing the leaves of a flower.


s: I hesitated for a moment, and then placed at her feet all that I


s: She glanced at them and said, "What strange things are these?  I


s: I bowed my head in shame and thought, "I have not fought for


s: these, I did not buy them in the market; they are not fit gifts


s: Then the whole night through I flung them one by one into the


s: In the morning travellers came; they picked them up and carried


s: Ah me, why did they build my house by the road to the market


s: They moor their laden boats near my trees.


s: They come and go and wander at their will.


s: Turn them away I cannot.  And thus my days pass by.


s: Night and day their steps sound by my door.


s: Some of them are known to my fingers, some to my nostrils, the


s: blood in my veins seems to know them, and some are known to my


s: Turn them away I cannot.  I call them and say, "Come to my house


s: In the morning the bell rings in the temple.


s: They come with their baskets in their hands.


s: Their feet are rosy red.  The early light of dawn is on their


s: Turn them away I cannot.  I call them and I say, "Come to my


s: garden to gather flowers.  Come hither."


s: In the mid-day the gong sounds at the palace gate.


s: I know not why they leave their work and linger near my hedge.


s: The flowers in their hair are pale and faded; the notes are


s: Turn them away I cannot.  I call them and say, "The shade is cool


s: At night the crickets chirp in the woods.


s: Who is it that comes slowly to my door and gently knocks?


s: I vaguely see the face, not a word is spoken, the stillness of


s: Turn away my silent guest I cannot.  I look at the face through


s: I am restless.  I am athirst for far-away things.


s: My soul goes out in a longing to touch the skirt of the dim


s: O Great Beyond, O the keen call of thy flute!


s: I forget, I ever forget, that I have no wings to fly, that I am


s: I am eager and wakeful, I am a stranger in a strange land.


s: Thy breath comes to me whispering an impossible hope.


s: Thy tongue is known to my heart as its very own.


s: O Far-to-seek, O the keen call of thy flute!


s: I forget, I ever forget, that I know not the way, that I have not


s: I am listless, I am a wanderer in my heart.


s: In the sunny haze of the languid hours, what vast vision of thine


s: O Farthest end, O the keen call of thy flute!


s: I forget, I ever forget, that the gates are shut everywhere in


s: The tame bird was in a cage, the free bird was in the forest.


s: They met when the time came, it was a decree of fate.


s: The free bird cries, "O my love, let us fly to wood."


s: The cage bird whispers, "Come hither, let us both live in the


s: Says the free bird, "Among bars, where is there room to spread


s: "Alas," cries the cage bird, "I should not know where to sit


s: The free bird cries, "My darling, sing the songs of the


s: The cage bird says, "Sit by my side, I'll teach you the speech of


s: The forest bird cries, "No, ah no! songs can never be taught."


s: The cage bird says, "Alas for me, I know not the songs of the


s: Their love is intense with longing, but they never can fly wing


s: Through the bars of the cage they look, and vain is their wish to


s: They flutter their wings in yearning, and sing, "Come closer, my


s: The free bird cries, "It cannot be, I fear the closed doors of


s: The cage bird whispers, "Alas, my wings are powerless and dead."


s: O mother, the young Prince is to pass by our door,--how can I


s: Show me how to braid up my hair; tell me what garment to put on.


s: I know well he will not glance up once at my window; I know he


s: will pass out of my sight in the twinkling of an eye; only the


s: vanishing strain of the flute will come sobbing to me from


s: But the young Prince will pass by our door, and I will put on my


s: O mother, the young Prince did pass by our door, and the morning


s: I swept aside the veil from my face, I tore the ruby chain from


s: I know well he did not pick up my chain; I know it was crushed


s: under his wheels leaving a red stain upon the dust, and no one


s: When the lamp went out by my bed I woke up with the early birds.


s: I sat at my open window with a fresh wreath on my loose hair.


s: The young traveller came along the road in the rosy mist of the


s: A pearl chain was on his neck, and the sun's rays fell on his


s: crown.  He stopped before my door and asked me with an eager


s: For very shame I could not say, "She is I, young traveller, she


s: The young traveller came on his chariot in the glow of the


s: His horses were foaming at the mouth, and there was dust on his


s: He alighted at my door and asked in a tired voice, "Where is


s: For very shame I could not say, "She is I, weary traveller, she


s: It is an April night.  The lamp is burning in my room.


s: The breeze of the south comes gently.  The noisy parrot sleeps in


s: My bodice is of the colour of the peacock's throat, and my mantle


s: I sit upon the floor at the window watching the deserted street.


s: Through the dark night I keep humming, "She is I, despairing


s: When I go alone at night to my love-tryst, birds do not sing, the


s: It is my own anklets that grow loud at every step and I am


s: When I sit on my balcony and listen for his footsteps, leaves do


s: not rustle on the trees, and the water is still in the river


s: like the sword on the knees of a sentry fallen asleep.


s: It is my own heart that beats wildly--I do not know how to quiet


s: When my love comes and sits by my side, when my body trembles and


s: lamp, and the clouds draw veils over the stars.


s: Let your work be, bride.  Listen, the guest has come.


s: Do you hear, he is gently shaking the chain which fastens the


s: See that your anklets make no loud noise, and that your step is


s: Let your work be, bride, the guest has come in the evening.


s: No, it is not the ghostly wind, bride, do not be frightened.


s: It is the full moon on a night of April; shadows are pale in the


s: Draw your veil over your face if you must, carry the lamp to the


s: Have no word with him if you are shy; stand aside by the door


s: If he asks you questions, and if you wish to, you can lower your


s: Do not let your bracelets jingle when, lamp in hand, you lead him


s: Have you not finished your work yet, bride?  Listen, the guest


s: Have you not lit the lamp in the cowshed?


s: Have you not got ready the offering basket for the evening


s: Have you not put the red lucky mark at the parting of your hair,


s: O bride, do you hear, the guest has come?


s: Come as you are; do not loiter over your toilet.


s: If your braided hair has loosened, if the parting of your hair be


s: If the raddle come from your feet because of the dew, if the


s: rings of bells upon your feet slacken, if pearls drop out of


s: Flocks of cranes fly up from the further river-bank and fitful


s: The anxious cattle run to their stalls in the village.


s: In vain you light your toilet lamp--it flickers and goes out in


s: Who can know that your eyelids have not been touched with lamp-


s: black?  For your eyes are darker than rain-clouds.


s: In vain you light your toilet lamp--it goes out.


s: If the wreath is not woven, who cares; if the wrist-chain has not


s: The sky is overcast with clouds--it is late.


s: If you would be busy and fill your pitcher, come, O come to my


s: The water will cling round your feet and babble its secret.


s: The shadow of the coming rain is on the sands, and the clouds


s: hang low upon the blue lines of the trees like the heavy hair


s: I know well the rhythm of your steps, they are beating in my


s: Come, O come to my lake, if you must fill your pitcher.


s: If you would be idle and sit listless and let your pitcher float


s: The grassy slope is green, and the wild flowers beyond number.


s: Your thoughts will stray out of your dark eyes like birds from


s: Come, O come to my lake if you must sit idle.


s: If you would leave off your play and dive in the water, come, O


s: Let your blue mantle lie on the shore; the blue water will cover


s: The waves will stand a-tiptoe to kiss your neck and whisper in


s: Come, O come to my lake, if you would dive in the water.


s: If you must be mad and leap to your death, come, O come to my


s: It is dark like a sleep that is dreamless.


s: There in its depths nights and days are one, and songs are


s: Come, O come to my lake, if you would plunge to your death.


s: I asked nothing, only stood at the edge of the wood behind the


s: Languor was still upon the eyes of the dawn, and the dew in the


s: The lazy smell of the damp grass hung in the thin mist above the


s: Under the banyan tree you were milking the cow with your hands,


s: I did not say a word.  It was the bird that sang unseen from the


s: The mango tree was shedding its flowers upon the village road,


s: On the side of the pond the gate of _Shiva's_ temple was


s: opened and the worshipper had begun his chants.


s: With the vessel on your lap you were milking the cow.


s: The sky woke with the sound of the gong at the temple.


s: The dust was raised in the road from the hoofs of the driven


s: With the gurgling pitchers at their hips, women came from the


s: Your bracelets were jingling, and foam brimming over the jar.


s: The morning wore on and I did not come near you.


s: I was walking by the road, I do not know why, when the noonday


s: was past and bamboo branches rustled in the wind.


s: The prone shadows with their out-stretched arms clung to the feet


s: I was walking by the road, I do not know why.


s: The hut by the side of the water is shaded by an overhanging


s: Some one was busy with her work, and her bangles made music in


s: I stood before this hut, I know not why.


s: It passes by the temple of the village and the market at the


s: I stopped by this hut, I do not know why.


s: Years ago it was a day of breezy March when the murmur of the


s: spring was languorous, and mango blossoms were dropping on the


s: The rippling water leapt and licked the brass vessel that stood


s: I think of that day of breezy March, I do not know why.


s: Shadows are deepening and cattle returning to their folds.


s: The light is grey upon the lonely meadows, and the villagers are


s: I slowly return upon my steps, I do not know why.


s: I run as a musk-deer runs in the shadow of the forest mad with


s: The night is the night of mid-May, the breeze is the breeze of


s: I lose my way and I wander, I seek what I cannot get, I get what


s: From my heart comes out and dances the image of my own desire.


s: I try to clasp it firmly, it eludes me and leads me astray.


s: I seek what I cannot get, I get what I do not seek.


s: Hands cling to hands and eyes linger on eyes: thus begins the


s: It is the moonlit night of March; the sweet smell of _henna_


s: is in the air; my flute lies on the earth neglected and your


s: This love between you and me is simple as a song.


s: Your veil of the saffron colour makes my eyes drunk.


s: The jasmine wreath that you wove me thrills to my heart like


s: It is a game of giving and withholding, revealing and screening


s: again; some smiles and some little shyness, and some sweet


s: No mystery beyond the present; no striving for the impossible; no


s: We do not stray out of all words into the ever silent; we do not


s: raise our hands to the void for things beyond hope.


s: We have not crushed the joy to the utmost to wring from it the


s: The yellow bird sings in their tree and makes my heart dance with


s: We both live in the same village, and that is our one piece of


s: Her pair of pet lambs come to graze in the shade of our garden


s: If they stray into our barley field, I take them up in my arms.


s: Bees that have hived in our grove go to seek honey in theirs.


s: Flowers launched from their landing-stairs come floating by the


s: Baskets of dried _kusm_ flowers come from their fields to


s: The lane that winds to their house is fragrant in the spring with


s: When their linseed is ripe for harvest the hemp is in bloom in


s: The stars that smile on their cottage send us the same twinkling


s: The rain that floods their tank makes glad our _kadam_


s: When the two sisters go to fetch water, they come to this spot


s: They must be aware of somebody who stands behind the trees


s: The two sisters whisper to each other when they pass this spot.


s: They must have guessed the secret of that somebody who stands


s: behind the trees whenever they go to fetch water.


s: Their pitchers lurch suddenly, and water spills when they reach


s: They must have found out that somebody's heart is beating who


s: stands behind the trees whenever they go to fetch water.


s: The two sisters glance at each other when they come to this spot,


s: There is a laughter in their swift-stepping feet, which makes


s: confusion in somebody's mind who stands behind the trees


s: You walked by the riverside path with the full pitcher upon your


s: Why did you swiftly turn your face and peep at me through your


s: That gleaming look from the dark came upon me like a breeze that


s: sends a shiver through the rippling water and sweeps away to


s: It came to me like the bird of the evening that hurriedly flies


s: across the lampless room from the one open window to the other,


s: You are hidden as a star behind the hills, and I am a passer-by


s: But why did you stop for a moment and glance at my face through


s: your veil while you walked by the riverside path with the full


s: Go, and give him a flower from my hair, my friend.


s: If he asks who was it that sent it, I entreat you do not tell him


s: Spread there a seat with flowers and leaves, my friend.


s: His eyes are sad, and they bring sadness to my heart.


s: He does not speak what he has in mind; he only comes and goes


s: Why did he choose to come to my door, the wandering youth, when


s: As I come in and out I pass by him every time, and my eyes are


s: I know not if I should speak to him or keep silent.  Why did he


s: The cloudy nights in July are dark; the sky is soft blue in the


s: autumn; the spring days are restless with the south wind.


s: He weaves his songs with fresh tunes every time.


s: I turn from my work and my eyes fill with the mist.  Why did he


s: When she passed by me with quick steps, the end of her skirt


s: From the unknown island of a heart came a sudden warm breath of


s: A flutter of a flitting touch brushed me and vanished in a


s: moment, like a torn flower petal blown in the breeze.


s: It fell upon my heart like a sigh of her body and whisper of her


s: Why do you sit there and jingle your bracelets in mere idle


s: Fill your pitcher.  It is time for you to come home.


s: Why do you stir the water with your hands and fitfully glance at


s: the road for some one in mere idle sport?


s: The morning hours pass by--the dark waters flows on.


s: The waves are laughing and whispering to each other in mere idle


s: The wandering clouds have gathered at the edge of the sky on


s: They linger and look at your face and smile in mere idle sport.


s: Do not keep to yourself the secret of your heart, my friend!


s: You who smile so gently, softly whisper, my heart will hear it,


s: The night is deep, the house is silent, the birds' nests are


s: Speak to me through hesitating tears, through faltering smiles,


s: through sweet shame and pain, the secret of your heart!


s: "Come to us, youth, tell us truly why there is madness in your


s: "I know not what wine of wild poppy I have drunk, that there is


s: "Well, some are wise and some foolish, some are watchful and some


s: "Youth, why do you stand so still under the shadow of the tree?"


s: "My feet are languid with the burden of my heart, and I stand


s: "Well, some march on their way and some linger, some are free and


s: "What comes from your willing hands I take.  I beg for nothing


s: "Yes, yes, I know you, modest mendicant, you ask for all that one


s: "If there be a stray flower for me I will wear it in my heart."


s: "If but once you should raise your loving eyes to my face it


s: "Trust love even if it brings sorrow.  Do not close up your


s: "Ah no, my friend, your words are dark, I cannot understand


s: "The heart is only for giving away with a tear and a song, my


s: "Pleasure is frail like a dewdrop, while it laughs it dies.  But


s: sorrow is strong and abiding.  Let sorrowful love wake in your


s: "The lotus blooms in the sight of the sun, and loses all that it


s: has.  It would not remain in bud in the eternal winter mist."


s: Your questioning eyes are sad.  They seek to know my meaning as


s: I have bared my life before your eyes from end to end, with


s: nothing hidden or held back.  That is why you know me not.


s: If it were only a gem I could break it into a hundred pieces and


s: string them into a chain to put on your neck.


s: If it were only a flower, round and small and sweet, I could


s: pluck it from its stem to set it in your hair.


s: But it is a heart, my beloved.  Where are its shores and its


s: You know not the limits of this kingdom, still you are its queen.


s: smile, and you could see it and read it in a moment.


s: If it were merely a pain it would melt in limpid tears,


s: reflecting its inmost secret without a word.


s: Its pleasure and pain are boundless, and endless its wants and


s: It is as near to you as your life, but you can never wholly know


s: Speak to me, my love!  Tell me in words what you sang.


s: The night is dark.  The stars are lost in clouds.  The wind is


s: I will let loose my hair.  My blue cloak will cling round me like


s: sweet loneliness murmur on your heart.  I will shut my eyes and


s: When your words are ended, we will sit still and silent.  Only


s: The night will pale.  The day will dawn.  We shall look at each


s: other's eyes and go on our different paths.


s: You are the evening cloud floating in the sky of my dreams.


s: I paint you and fashion you ever with my love longings.


s: You are my own, my own, Dweller in my endless dreams!


s: Your feet are rosy-red with the glow of my heart's desire,


s: Your lips are bitter-sweet with the taste of my wine of pain.


s: You are my own, my own, Dweller in my lonesome dreams!


s: With the shadow of my passion have I darkened your eyes, Haunter


s: I have caught you and wrapt you, my love, in the net of my music.


s: My heart, the bird of the wilderness, has found its sky in your


s: They are the cradle of the morning, they are the kingdom of the


s: Let me but soar in that sky, in its lonely immensity.


s: Let me but cleave its clouds and spread wings in its sunshine.


s: Tell me if this be all true, my lover, tell me if this be true.


s: When these eyes flash their lightning the dark clouds in your


s: Is it true that my lips are sweet like the opening bud of the


s: Do the memories of vanished months of May linger in my limbs?


s: Does the earth, like a harp, shiver into songs with the touch of


s: Is it then true that the dewdrops fall from the eyes of night


s: when I am seen, and the morning light is glad when it wraps my


s: Is it true, is it true, that your love travelled alone through


s: That when you found me at last, your age-long desire found utter


s: peace in my gentle speech and my eyes and lips and flowing


s: Is it then true that the mystery of the Infinite is written on


s: I love you, beloved.  Forgive me my love.


s: When my heart was shaken it lost its veil and was naked.  Cover


s: it with pity, beloved, and forgive me my love.


s: If you cannot love me, beloved, forgive me my pain.


s: I will steal back to my corner and sit in the dark.


s: With both hands I will cover my naked shame.


s: Turn your face from me, beloved, and forgive me my pain.


s: If you love me, beloved, forgive me my joy.


s: When my heart is borne away by the flood of happiness, do not


s: When I sit on my throne and rule you with my tyranny of love,


s: when like a goddess I grant you my favour, bear with my pride,


s: Do not go, my love, without asking my leave.


s: I have watched all night, and now my eyes are heavy with sleep.


s: I fear lest I lose you when I am sleeping.


s: I start up and stretch my hands to touch you.  I ask myself, "Is


s: Could I but entangle your feet with my heart and hold them fast


s: Lest I should know you too easily, you play with me.


s: You blind me with flashes of laughter to hide your tears.


s: Lest I should not prize you, you elude me in a thousand ways.


s: Lest I should confuse you with the crowd, you stand aside.


s: Your claim is more than that of others, that is why you are


s: With playful carelessness you avoid my gifts.


s: He whispered, "My love, raise your eyes."


s: I sharply chid him, and said "Go!"; but he did not stir.


s: He stood before me and held both my hands.  I said, "Leave me!";


s: He brought his face near my ear.  I glanced at him and said,


s: His lips touched my cheek.  I trembled and said, "You dare too


s: He put a flower in my hair.  I said, "It is useless!"; but he


s: He took the garland from my neck and went away.  I weep and ask


s: Would you put your wreath of fresh flowers on my neck, fair one?


s: But you must know that the one wreath that I had woven is for the


s: It is too late to ask my heart in return for yours.


s: There was a time when my life was like a bud, all its perfume was


s: Who knows the enchantment that can gather and shut it up again?


s: My heart is not mine to give to one only, it is given to the


s: My love, once upon a time your poet launched a great epic in his


s: Alas, I was not careful, and it struck your ringing anklets and


s: It broke up into scraps of songs and lay scattered at your feet.


s: All my cargo of the stories of old wars was tossed by the


s: laughing waves and soaked in tears and sank.


s: You must make this loss good to me, my love.


s: If my claims to immortal fame after death are shattered, make me


s: And I will not mourn for my loss nor blame you.


s: I try to weave a wreath all the morning, but the flowers slip and


s: You sit there watching me in secret through the corner of your


s: Ask those eyes, darkly planning mischief, whose fault it was.


s: A hidden smile trembles on your lips, ask of it the reason of my


s: Let your smiling lips say on oath how my voice lost itself in


s: silence like a drunken bee in the lotus.


s: It is evening, and the time for the flowers to close their


s: Give me leave to sit by your side, and bid my lips to do the work


s: An unbelieving smile flits on your eyes when I come to you to


s: I have done it so often that you think I will soon return.


s: To tell you the truth I have the same doubt in my mind.


s: For the spring days come again time after time; the full moon


s: takes leave and comes on another visit, the flowers come again


s: and blush upon their branches year after year, and it is likely


s: that I take my leave only to come to you again.


s: But keep the illusion awhile; do not send it away with ungentle


s: When I say I leave you for all time, accept it as true, and let a


s: Then smile as archly as you like when I come again.


s: I long to speak the deepest words I have to say to you; but I


s: That is why I laugh at myself and shatter my secret in jest.


s: I make light of my pain, afraid you should do so.


s: I long to tell you the truest words I have to say to you; but I


s: dare not, being afraid that you would not believe them.


s: That is why I disguise them in untruth, saying the contrary of


s: I make my pain appear absurd, afraid that you should do so.


s: I long to use the most precious words I have for you; but I dare


s: not, fearing I should not be paid with like value.


s: That is why I gave you hard names and boast of my callous


s: I hurt you, for fear you should never know any pain.


s: I long to sit silent by you; but I dare not lest my heart come


s: That is why I prattle and chatter lightly and hide my heart


s: I rudely handle my pain, for fear you should do so.


s: I long to go away from your side; but I dare not, for fear my


s: That is why I hold my head high and carelessly come into your


s: Constant thrusts from your eyes keep my pain fresh for ever.


s: If you kick open your doors and play the fool in public;


s: If you empty your bag in a night, and snap your fingers at


s: If you walk in curious paths and play with useless things;


s: If unfurling your sails before the storm you snap the rudder in


s: Then I will follow you, comrade, and be drunken and go to the


s: I have wasted my days and nights in the company of steady wise


s: Much knowing has turned my hair grey, and much watching has made


s: For years I have gathered and heaped up scraps and fragments of


s: Crush them and dance upon them, and scatter them all to the


s: For I know 'tis the height of wisdom to be drunken and go to the


s: Let all crooked scruples vanish, let me hopelessly lose my way.


s: Let a gust of wild giddiness come and sweep me away from my


s: The world is peopled with worthies, and workers, useful and


s: There are men who are easily first, and men who come decently


s: Let them be happy and prosper, and let me be foolishly futile.


s: For I know 'tis the end of all works to be drunken and go to the


s: I swear to surrender this moment all claims to the ranks of the


s: I let go my pride of learning and judgment of right and of wrong.


s: With the foam of the berry-red wine I will bathe and brighten my


s: The badge of the civil and staid I'll tear into shreds for the


s: I'll take the holy vow to be worthless, to be drunken and go to


s: No, my friends, I shall never leave my hearth and home, and


s: retire into the forest solitude, if rings no merry laughter in


s: its echoing shade and if the end of no saffron mantle flutters


s: in the wind; if its silence is not deepened by soft whispers.


s: Reverend sir, forgive this pair of sinners.  Spring winds to-day


s: are blowing in wild eddies, driving dust and dead leaves away,


s: and with them your lessons are all lost.


s: Do not say, father, that life is a vanity.


s: For we have made truce with death for once, and only for a few


s: fragrant hours we two have been made immortal.


s: Even if the king's army came and fiercely fell upon us we should


s: sadly shake our heads and say, Brothers, you are disturbing us.


s: If you must have this noisy game, go and clatter your arms


s: elsewhere.  Since only for a few fleeting moments we have been


s: If friendly people came and flocked around us, we should humbly


s: bow to them and say, This extravagant good fortune is an


s: embarrassment to us.  Room is scarce in the infinite sky where


s: we dwell.  For in the springtime flowers come in crowds, and


s: the busy wings of bees jostle each other.  Our little heaven,


s: where dwell only we two immortals, is too absurdly narrow.


s: To the guests that must go bid God's speed and brush away all


s: Take to your bosom with a smile what is easy and simple and near.


s: Let your laughter be but a meaningless mirth like twinkles of


s: Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the


s: Strike in chords from your harp fitful momentary rhythms.


s: I thought I should mourn for you and set your solitary image in


s: Youth wanes year after year; the spring days are fugitive; the


s: frail flowers die for nothing, and the wise man warns me that


s: life is but a dew-drop on the lotus leaf.


s: Should I neglect all this to gaze after one who has turned her


s: That would be rude and foolish, for time is short.


s: Then, come, my rainy nights with pattering feet; smile, my golden


s: My loves, you know we are mortals.  Is it wise to break one's


s: heart for the one who takes her heart away?  For time is short.


s: It is sweet to sit in a corner to muse and write in rhymes that


s: It is heroic to hug one's sorrow and determine not to be


s: But a fresh face peeps across my door and raises its eyes to my


s: I cannot but wipe away my tears and change the tune of my song.


s: If you would have it so, I will end my singing.


s: If it sets your heart aflutter, I will take away my eyes from


s: If it suddenly startles you in your walk, I will step aside and


s: If it confuses you in your flower-weaving, I will shun your


s: If it makes the water wanton and wild, I will not row my boat by


s: Free me from the bonds of your sweetness, my love!  No more of


s: This mist of heavy incense stifles my heart.


s: Open the doors, make room for the morning light.


s: I am lost in you, wrapped in the folds of your caresses.


s: Free me from your spells, and give me back the manhood to offer


s: I hold her hands and press her to my breast.


s: I try to fill my arms with her loveliness, to plunder her sweet


s: smile with kisses, to drink her dark glances with my eyes.


s: Ah, but, where is it?  Who can strain the blue from the sky?


s: I try to grasp the beauty, it eludes me, leaving only the body in


s: How can the body touch the flower which only the spirit may


s: Love, my heart longs day and night for the meeting with you--for


s: the meeting that is like all-devouring death.


s: Sweep me away like a storm; take everything I have; break open my


s: In that devastation, in the utter nakedness of spirit, let us


s: Alas for my vain desire!  Where is this hope for union except in


s: Then finish the last song and let us leave.


s: Forget this night when the night is no more.


s: Whom do I try to clasp in my arms?  Dreams can never be made


s: My eager hands press emptiness to my heart and it bruises my


s: I shaded it with my cloak to save it from the wind, that is why


s: I pressed it to my heart with anxious love, that is why the


s: I put a dam across it to have it for my use, that is why the


s: I tried to force a note that was beyond its power, that is why


s: Only for a passing hour I stood at the end of your courtyard


s: Not a rose did I gather from your garden, not a fruit did I


s: I humbly took my shelter under the wayside shade where every


s: Yes, my feet were tired, and the shower of rain come down.


s: The winds cried out among the swaying bamboo branches.


s: The clouds ran across the sky as though in the flight from


s: I know not what you thought of me or for whom you were waiting at


s: Flashes of lightning dazzled your watching eyes.


s: How could I know that you could see me where I stood in the dark?


s: The day is ended, and the rain has ceased for a moment.


s: I leave the shadow of the tree at the end of your garden and this


s: It has darkened; shut your door; I go my way.


s: Where do you hurry with your basket this late evening when the


s: They all have come home with their burdens; the moon peeps from


s: The echoes of the voices calling for the ferry run across the


s: dark water to the distant swamp where wild ducks sleep.


s: Where do you hurry with your basket when the marketing is over?


s: Sleep has laid her fingers upon the eyes of the earth.


s: The nests of the crows have become silent, and the murmurs of the


s: The labourers home from their fields spread their mats in the


s: I had done my work and sat alone on my balcony when you went


s: Fitful gusts came winnowing through the smells of many distant


s: The doves cooed tireless in the shade, and a bee strayed in my


s: room humming the news of many distant fields.


s: The village slept in the noonday heat.  The road lay deserted.


s: In sudden fits the rustling of the leaves rose and died.


s: I glazed at the sky and wove in the blue the letters of a name I


s: had known, while the village slept in the noonday heat.


s: I had forgotten to braid my hair.  The languid breeze played with


s: The river ran unruffled under the shady bank.


s: The dust of the road was hot and the fields panting.


s: I was alone in my balcony when you went away.


s: I was one among many women busy with the obscure daily tasks of


s: Why did you single me out and bring me away from the cool shelter


s: Love unexpressed in sacred.  It shines like gems in the gloom of


s: the hidden heart.  In the light of the curious day it looks


s: Ah, you broke through the cover of my heart and dragged my


s: trembling love into the open place, destroying for ever the


s: No one has peeped into their inmost being, and they themselves


s: Lightly they smile, and weep, chatter, and work.  Daily they go


s: to the temple, light their lamps, and fetch water from the


s: I hoped my love would be saved from the shivering shame of the


s: shelterless, but you turn your face away.


s: Yes, your path lies open before you, but you have cut off my


s: return, and left me stripped naked before the world with its


s: I pressed it to my heart and the thorn pricked.


s: When the day waned and it darkened, I found that the flower had


s: More flowers will come to you with perfume and pride, O world!


s: But my time for flower-gathering is over, and through the dark


s: night I have not my rose, only the pain remains.


s: One morning in the flower garden a blind girl came to offer me a


s: flower chain in the cover of a lotus leaf.


s: I put it round my neck, and tears came to my eyes.


s: I kissed her and said, "You are blind even as the flowers are.


s: You yourself know not how beautiful is your gift."


s: O woman, you are not merely the handiwork of God, but also of


s: men; these are ever endowing you with beauty from their hearts.


s: Poets are weaving for you a web with threads of golden imagery;


s: painters are giving your form ever new immortality.


s: The sea gives its pearls, the mines their gold, the summer


s: gardens their flowers to deck you, to cover you, to make you


s: The desire of men's hearts has shed its glory over your youth.


s: You are one half woman and one half dream.


s: Amidst the rush and roar of life, O Beauty, carved in stone, you


s: Great Time sits enamoured at your feet and murmurs:


s: "Speak, speak to me, my love; speak, my bride!"


s: But your speech is shut up in stone, O Immovable Beauty!


s: Peace, my heart, let the time for the parting be sweet.


s: Let love melt into memory and pain into songs.


s: Let the flight through the sky end in the folding of the wings


s: Let the last touch of your hands be gentle like the flower of the


s: Stand still, O Beautiful End, for a moment, and say your last


s: I bow to you and hold up my lamp to light you on your way.


s: In the dusky path of a dream I went to seek the love who was mine


s: Her house stood at the end of a desolate street.


s: In the evening breeze her pet peacock sat drowsing on its perch,


s: and the pigeons were silent in their corner.


s: She set her lamp down by the portal and stood before me.


s: She raised her large eyes to my face and mutely asked, "Are you


s: I tried to answer, but our language had been lost and forgotten.


s: I thought and thought; our names would not come to my mind.


s: Tears shone in her eyes.  She held up her right hand to me.  I


s: Out lamp had flickered in the evening breeze and died.


s: The night is still and the darkness swoons upon the forest.


s: The lamps are bright in our balcony, the flowers all fresh, and


s: We have not bound your feet with our entreating arms.


s: Your doors are open.  Your horse stands saddled at the gate.


s: If we have tried to bar your passage it was but with our songs.


s: Did we ever try to hold you back it was but with our eyes.


s: Traveller, we are helpless to keep you.  We have only our tears.


s: What quenchless fire glows in your eyes?


s: What awful incantation have you read among the stars in the sky,


s: that with a sealed secret message the night entered your heart,


s: If you do not care for merry meetings, if you must have peace,


s: weary heart, we shall put our lamps out and silence our harps.


s: We shall sit still in the dark in the rustle of leaves, and the


s: tired moon will shed pale rays on your window.


s: O traveller, what sleepless spirit has touched you from the heart


s: I spent my day on the scorching hot dust of the road.


s: Now, in the cool of the evening, I knock at the door of the inn.


s: A grim _ashath_ tree spreads its hungry clutching roots


s: through the gaping fissures of the walls.


s: Days have been when wayfarers came here to wash their weary feet.


s: early moon, and sat and talked of strange lands.


s: They work refreshed in the morning when birds made them glad, and


s: But no lighted lamp awaited me when I came here.


s: The black smudges of smoke left by many a forgotten evening lamp


s: Fireflies flit in the bush near the dried-up pond, and bamboo


s: branches fling their shadows on the grass-grown path.


s: I am the guest of no one at the end of my day.


s: The long night is before me, and I am tired.


s: The evening has come.  Weariness clings around me like the arms


s: I had given all my day to you, cruel mistress, must you also rob


s: Somewhere there is an end to everything, and the loneness of the


s: Must your voice cut through it and smite me?


s: Has the evening no music of sleep at your gate?


s: Do the silent-winged stars never climb the sky above your


s: Do the flowers never drop on the dust in soft death in your


s: Then let the sad eyes of love vainly watch and weep.


s: Let the ferry-boat take the weary labourers to their home.


s: I leave behind my dreams and I hasten to your call.


s: A wandering madman was seeking the touchstone, with matted locks


s: tawny and dust-laden, and body worn to a shadow, his lips


s: tight-pressed, like the shut-up doors of his heart, his burning


s: eyes like the lamp of a glow-worm seeking its mate.


s: The garrulous waves ceaselessly talked of hidden treasures,


s: mocking the ignorance that knew not their meaning.


s: Maybe he now had no hope remaining, yet he would not rest, for


s: Just as the ocean for ever lifts its arms to the sky for the


s: Just as the stars go in circles, yet seeking a goal that can


s: Even so on the lonely shore the madman with dusty tawny locks


s: still roamed in search of the touchstone.


s: One day a village boy came up and asked, "Tell me, where did you


s: come at this golden chain about your waist?"


s: The madman started--the chain that once was iron was verily gold;


s: He struck his forehead wildly--where, O where had he without


s: It had grown into a habit, to pick up pebbles and touch the


s: chain, and to throw them away without looking to see if a


s: change had come; thus the madman found and lost the touchstone.


s: The sun was sinking low in the west, the sky was of gold.


s: The madman returned on his footsteps to seek anew the lost


s: treasure, with his strength gone, his body bent, and his heart


s: Though the evening comes with slow steps and has signalled for


s: Though your companions have gone to their rest and you are tired;


s: That is not the gloom of the leaves of the forest, that is the


s: That is not the dance of the flowering jasmine, that is flashing


s: Ah, where is the sunny green shore, where is your nest?


s: Bird, O my bird, listen to me, do not close your wings.


s: The lone night lies along your path, the dawn sleeps behind the


s: The stars hold their breath counting the hours, the feeble moon


s: There is only your own pair of wings and the pathless sky.


s: None lives for ever, brother, and nothing lasts for long.  Keep


s: Our life is not the one old burden, our path is not the one long


s: One sole poet has not to sing one aged song.


s: The flower fades and dies; but he who wears the flower has not to


s: There must come a full pause to weave perfection into music.


s: Life droops toward its sunset to be drowned in the golden


s: Love must be called from its play to drink sorrow and be borne to


s: We hasten to gather our flowers lest they are plundered by the


s: It quickens our blood and brightens our eyes to snatch kisses


s: Our life is eager, our desires are keen, for time tolls the bell


s: There is not time for us to clasp a thing and crush it and fling


s: The hours trip rapidly away, hiding their dreams in their skirts.


s: Were it for work and drudgery it would be endlessly long.


s: Beauty is sweet to us, because she dances to the same fleeting


s: Knowledge is precious to us, because we shall never have time to


s: All is done and finished in the eternal Heaven.


s: But earth's flowers of illusion are kept eternally fresh by


s: You may smile, my friends, but I pursue the vision that eludes


s: I run across hills and dales, I wander through nameless lands,


s: because I am hunting for the golden stag.


s: You come and buy in the market and go back to your homes laden


s: with goods, but the spell of the homeless winds has touched me


s: I have no care in my heart; all my belongings I have left far


s: I run across hills and dales, I wander through nameless lands--


s: I remember a day in my childhood I floated a paper boat in the


s: It was a wet day of July; I was alone and happy over my play.


s: Suddenly the storm clouds thickened, winds came in gusts, and


s: Rills of muddy water rushed and swelled the stream and sunk my


s: Bitterly I thought in my mind that the storm came on purpose to


s: spoil my happiness; all its malice was against me.


s: The cloudy day of July is long today, and I have been musing over


s: I was blaming my fate for the many tricks it played on me, when


s: suddenly I remembered the paper boat that sank in the ditch.


s: The day is not yet done, the fair is not over, the fair on the


s: I had feared that my time had been squandered and my last penny


s: But no, my brother, I have still something left.  My fate has not


s: All the dues on both sides have been gathered in, and it is time


s: But, gatekeeper, do you ask for your toll?


s: Do not fear, I have still something left.  My fate has not


s: The lull in the wind threatens storm, and the lowering clouds in


s: I hurry to cross the river before the night overtakes me.


s: Yes, brother, I have still something left.  My fate has not


s: In the wayside under the tree sits the beggar.  Alas, he looks at


s: He thinks I am rich with the day's profit.


s: The night grows dark and the road lonely.  Fireflies gleam among


s: Who are you that follow me with stealthy silent steps?


s: Ah, I know, it is your desire to rob me of all my gains.  I will


s: For I still have something left, and my fate has not cheated me


s: At midnight I reach home.  My hands are empty.


s: You are waiting with anxious eyes at my door, sleepless and


s: Like a timorous bird you fly to my breast with eager love.


s: Ay, ay, my God, much remains still.  My fate has not cheated me


s: With days of hard travail I raised a temple.  It had no doors or


s: windows, its walls were thickly built with massive stones.


s: I forgot all else, I shunned all the world, I gazed in rapt


s: contemplation at the image I had set upon the altar.


s: It was always night inside, and lit by the lamps of perfumed oil.


s: bewildering lines--winged horses, flowers with human faces,


s: No passage was left anywhere through which could enter the song


s: of birds, the murmur of leaves or hum of the busy village.


s: The only sound that echoed in its dark dome was that of


s: My mind became keen and still like a pointed flame, my senses


s: I knew not how time passed till the thunderstone had struck the


s: temple, and a pain stung me through the heart.


s: The lamp looked pale and ashamed; the carvings on the walls, like


s: I looked at the image on the altar.  I saw it smiling and alive


s: with the living touch of God.  The night I had imprisoned had


s: Infinite wealth is not yours, my patient and dusky mother dust!


s: You toil to fill the mouths of your children, but food is scarce.


s: The toys that you make for your children are fragile.


s: You cannot satisfy all our hungry hopes, but should I desert you


s: Your smile which is shadowed with pain is sweet to my eyes.


s: Your love which knows not fulfilment is dear to my heart.


s: From your breast you have fed us with life but not immortality,


s: For ages you are working with colour and song, yet your heaven is


s: Over your creations of beauty there is the mist of tears.


s: I will pour my songs into your mute heart, and my love into your


s: I have seen your tender face and I love your mournful dust,


s: In the world's audience hall, the simple blade of grass sits on


s: the same carpet with the sunbeam and the stars of midnight.


s: Thus my songs share their seats in the heart of the world with


s: But, you man of riches, your wealth has no part in the simple


s: grandeur of the sun's glad gold and the mellow gleam of the


s: The blessing of all-embracing sky is not shed upon it.


s: And when death appears, it pales and withers and crumbles into


s: At midnight the would-be ascetic announced:


s: "This is the time to give up my home and seek for God.  Ah, who


s: God whispered, "I," but the ears of the man were stopped.


s: With a baby asleep at her breast lay his wife, peacefully


s: The man said, "Who are ye that have fooled me so long?"


s: The voice said again, "They are God," but he heard it not.


s: The baby cried out in its dream, nestling close to its mother.


s: God commanded, "Stop, fool, leave not thy home," but still he


s: God sighed and complained, "Why does my servant wander to seek


s: The fair was on before the temple.  It had rained from the early


s: Brighter than all the gladness of the crowd was the bright smile


s: of a girl who bought for a farthing a whistle of palm leaf.


s: The shrill joy of that whistle floated above all laughter and


s: An endless throng of people came and jostled together.  The road


s: was muddy, the river in flood, the field under water in


s: Greater than all the troubles of the crowd was a little boy's


s: trouble--he had not a farthing to buy a painted stick.


s: His wistful eyes gazing at the shop made this whole meeting of


s: The workman and his wife from the west country are busy digging


s: Their little daughter goes to the landing-place by the river;


s: there she has no end of scouring and scrubbing of pots and


s: Her little brother, with shaven head and brown, naked, mud-


s: covered limbs, follows after her and waits patiently on the


s: She goes back home with the full pitcher poised on her head, the


s: shining brass pot in her left hand, holding the child with her


s: right--she the tiny servant of her mother, grave with the


s: One day I saw this naked boy sitting with legs outstretched.


s: In the water his sister sat rubbing a drinking-pot with a handful


s: Near by a soft-haired lamb stood gazing along the bank.


s: It came close to where the boy sat and suddenly bleated aloud,


s: His sister left off cleaning her pot and ran up.


s: She took up her brother in one arm and the lamb in the other, and


s: affection the offspring of beast and man.


s: It was in May.  The sultry noon seemed endlessly long.  The dry


s: When I heard from the riverside a voice calling, "Come, my


s: I shut my book and opened the window to look out.


s: I saw a big buffalo with mud-stained hide, standing near the


s: river with placid, patient eyes; and a youth, knee deep in


s: I smiled amused and felt a touch of sweetness in my heart.


s: I often wonder where lie hidden the boundaries of recognition


s: between man and the beast whose heart knows no spoken language.


s: Through what primal paradise in a remote morning of creation ran


s: the simple path by which their hearts visited each other.


s: Those marks of their constant tread have not been effaced though


s: Yet suddenly in some wordless music the dim memory wakes up and


s: the beast gazes into the man's face with a tender trust, and


s: the man looks down into its eyes with amused affection.


s: It seems that the two friends meet masked and vaguely know each


s: With a glance of your eyes you could plunder all the wealth of


s: songs struck from poets' harps, fair woman!


s: But for their praises you have no ear, therefore I come to praise


s: You could humble at your feet the proudest heads in the world.


s: But it is your loved ones, unknown to fame, whom you choose to


s: The perfection of your arms would add glory to kingly splendour


s: But you use them to sweep away the dust, and to make clean your


s: humble home, therefore I am filled with awe.


s: Why do you whisper so faintly in my ears, O Death, my Death?


s: When the flowers droop in the evening and cattle come back to


s: their stalls, you stealthily come to my side and speak words


s: Is this how you must woo and win me with the opiate of drowsy


s: murmur and cold kisses, O Death, my Death?


s: Will there be no proud ceremony for our wedding?


s: Will you not tie up with a wreath your tawny coiled locks?


s: Is there none to carry your banner before you, and will not the


s: night be on fire with your red torch-lights, O Death, my Death?


s: Come with your conch-shells sounding, come in the sleepless


s: Dress me with a crimson mantle, grasp my hand and take me.


s: Let your chariot be ready at my door with your horses neighing


s: Raise my veil and look at my face proudly, O Death, my Death!


s: We are to play the game of death to-night, my bride and I.


s: The night is black, the clouds in the sky are capricious, and the


s: We have left our bed of dreams, flung open the door and come out,


s: We sit upon a swing, and the storm winds give us a wild push from


s: My bride starts up with fear and delight, she trembles and clings


s: I made for her a bed of flowers and I closed the doors to shut


s: I kissed her gently on her lips and whispered softly in her ears


s: She was lost in the endless mist of vague sweetness.


s: She answered not to my touch, my songs failed to arouse her.


s: To-night has come to us the call of the storm from the wild.


s: My bride has shivered and stood up, she has clasped my hand and


s: Her hair is flying in the wind, her veil is fluttering, her


s: The push of death has swung her into life.


s: We are face to face and heart to heart, my bride and I.


s: She dwelt on the hillside by the edge of a maize-field, near the


s: spring that flows in laughing rills through the solemn shadows


s: of ancient trees.  The women came there to fill their jars, and


s: travellers would sit there to rest and talk.  She worked and


s: dreamed daily to the tune of the bubbling stream.


s: One evening the stranger came down from the cloud-hidden peak;


s: his locks were tangled like drowsy snakes.  We asked in wonder,


s: "Who are you?"  He answered not but sat by the garrulous stream


s: and silently gazed at the hut where she dwelt.  Our hearts


s: quaked in fear and we came back home when it was night.


s: Next morning when the women came to fetch water at the spring by


s: the _deodar_ trees, they found the doors open in her hut,


s: but her voice was gone and where was her smiling face?  The


s: empty jar lay on the floor and her lamp had burnt itself out in


s: the corner.  No one knew where she had fled to before it was


s: In the month of May the sun grew strong and the snow melted, and


s: we sat by the spring and wept.  We wondered in our mind, "Is


s: there a spring in the land where she has gone and where she can


s: fill her vessel in these hot thirsty days?"  And we asked each


s: other in dismay, "Is there a land beyond these hills where we


s: It was a summer night; the breeze blew from the south; and I sat


s: in her deserted room where the lamp stood still unlit.  When


s: suddenly from before my eyes the hills vanished like curtains


s: drawn aside.  "Ah, it is she who comes.  How are you, my child?


s: Are you happy?  But where can you shelter under this open sky?


s: And, alas, our spring is not here to allay your thirst."


s: "Here is the same sky," she said, "only free from the fencing


s: hills,--this is the same stream grown into a river,--the same


s: earth widened into a plain."  "Everything is here," I sighed,


s: "only we are not."  She smiled sadly and said, "You are in my


s: heart."  I woke up and heard the babbling of the stream and the


s: Over the green and yellow rice-fields sweep the shadows of the


s: autumn clouds followed by the swift chasing sun.


s: The bees forget to sip their honey; drunken with light they


s: The ducks in the islands of the river clamour in joy for mere


s: Let none go back home, brothers, this morning, let none go to


s: Let us take the blue sky by storm and plunder space as we run.


s: Laughter floats in the air like foam on the flood.


s: Brothers, let us squander our morning in futile songs.


s: Who are you, reader, reading my poems an hundred years hence?


s: I cannot send you one single flower from this wealth of the


s: spring, one single streak of gold from yonder clouds.


s: From your blossoming garden gather fragrant memories of the


s: vanished flowers of an hundred years before.


s: In the joy of your heart may you feel the living joy that sang


s: one spring morning, sending its glad voice across an hundred


s: A wandering madman was seeking the touchstone


s: At midnight the would-be ascetic announced


s: Come as you are; do not loiter over your toilet


s: Do not go, my love, without asking my leave


s: Do not keep to yourself the secret of your heart, my friend


s: Free me from the bonds of your sweetness, my love


s: Hands cling to hands and eyes linger on eyes


s: He whispered, "My love, raise your eyes"


s: I asked nothing, only stood at the edge of the wood


s: I hold her hands and press her to my breast


s: I run as a musk-deer runs in the shadow of the forest


s: I spent my day on the scorching hot dust of the road


s: I was walking by the road, I do not know why


s: If you would be busy and fill your pitcher, come


s: If you would have it so, I will end my singing


s: In the dusky path of a dream I went to seek the love


s: In the morning I cast my net into the sea


s: Lest I should know you too easily, you play with me


s: My love, once upon a time your poet launched a great epic


s: No, my friends, I shall never be an ascetic


s: O mother, the young Prince is to pass by our door


s: O woman, you are not merely the handiwork of God


s: One morning in the flower garden a blind girl came


s: Peace, my heart, let the time for the parting be sweet


s: Reverend sir, forgive this pair of sinners


s: The day is not yet done, the fair is not over


s: The workman and his wife from the west country


s: Then finish the last song and let us leave


s: Though the evening comes with slow steps


s: To the guests that must go bid God's speed


s: We are to play the game of death to-night


s: What comes from your willing hands I take


s: When I go alone at night to my love-tryst


s: Why do you sit there and jingle your bracelets


s: Why do you whisper so faintly in my ears


s: With a glance of your eyes you could plunder


s: With days of hard travail I raised a temple


s: Would you put your wreath of fresh flowers on my neck


s: You are the evening cloud floating in the sky of my dreams


s: Number of parts: nature of parts: rest of same inquiry.


s: Begin in order of nature from first principles.


s: Some artists imitate (i.e. depict) by shapes and colours. (Obs.


s: Rhythm and tune alone, harping, fluting, and other arts with same


s: For example, their enlightenment in the literal phrase, 'how the


s: of un-happiness that we think it, is properly an imitation of


s: I hope it is not rash to surmise that the much-debated word


s: __katharsis__, 'purification' or 'purgation', may have come into


s: might have been used in the days of Thespis in a much cruder and


s: less metaphorical sense. According to primitive ideas, the mimic


s: It may seem as if the large uncertainties which we have indicated


s: Poetry, however, soon broke up into two kinds according to the


s: If it be asked whether Tragedy is now all that it need be in its


s: It certainly began in improvisations--as did also Comedy; the one


s: tragedy, but only its own proper pleasure.


s: The tragic pleasure is that of pity and fear, and the poet has to