Why, if the soul can fling the Dust aside,
And naked on the air of Heaven ride,
Wert not a shame - wert not a shame for him
In this clay carcase crippled to abide?
'Tis but a tent where takes his one-day's rest
A Sultan to the realm of Death addrest;
The Sultan rises, and the dark Ferr?sh
Strikes, and prepares it for another guest.
And fear not lest Existence, closing your
Account, and mine, shall know the like no more;
The Eternal S?ki from that bowl hath pour'd
Millions of bubbles like us, and will pour.
When you and I behind the veil are past,
Oh, but the long, long while the world shall last,
Which of our coming and departure heeds
As the Sev'n Seas shall heed a pebble-cast.
A moment's halt - a momentary taste
Of Being from the Well amid the waste,
And lo! - the phantom caravan has reach'd
The Nothing it set out from - O, make haste!
* * *
There was the door to which I found no key;
There was the veil through which I could not see:
Some little talk awhile of Me and Thee
There was - and then no more of Thee and Me.
* * *
Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss'd
Of the two worlds so learnedly are thrust
Like foolish prophets forth; their words to scorn
Are scatter'd and their mouths are stopt with dust.
With them the seed of wisdom did I sow,
And with my own hand wrought to make it grow
And this was all the harvest that I reap'd -
"I come like water, and like wind I go."
* * *
Ah Love, could thou and I with Him conspire
To grasp this sorry scheme of Things entire,
Would we not shatter it to bits - and then
Re-mould it nearer to the heart's desire!
Yon rising Moon that looks for us again -
How oft hereafter will she wax and wane;
How oft hereafter rising look for us
Through this same garden - and for one in vain!
And when like her, O S?ki, you shall pass
Among the guests, star-scattered on the grass,
And in your blissful errand reach the spot
Where I made one - turn down an empty glass!
* * *
And, again, in another poem from Carmen Silva's Roumanian folk-songs:
Hopeless.
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