English

Never think you fortune can bear the sway
Where virtue's force can cause her to obey.

Grant me, Rama, to see Thee, see Thee: grant me to see, make no delay.
Life of my life it is to see Thee: can the chakor live except he see Thee?

Sadhus, of the Sat Guru all the world is chela: if parted now, how hope to meet Him?
Tis vain to trust on wealth and beauty—the truth, the truth proclaims Rai Das.

Gold is the chiefest labour of the sunne:
Gemmes are his artifice: His beames intrude
Upon the darke Abysse, and Mansion
Of the blind subterraneous multitude,
Whereby his pow'r is shew'd.
But true Conversion doth transcend the starres,
Where it creates such joyes, that Gemmes, and Gold
Compar'd with these, are vitiated wares,
Thus Pious Soules more vertues doe infold,
Then this great light doth hold:
And him in force excell,
As farre as Heaven doth Hell.

Amid the trials which I meet,
Amid the thorns that pierce my feet,
One thought remains supremely sweet,
Thou thinkest, Lord, of me!
The cares of life come thronging fast,
Upon my soul their shadow cast;
Their gloom reminds my heart at last,
Thou thinkest, Lord, of me!
Let shadows come, let shadows go,
Let life be bright, or dark with woe,
I am content, for this I know,
Thou thinkest, Lord, of me!

Thou thinkest, Lord, of me (of me),
Thou thinkest, Lord, of me (of me);
What need I fear since thou art near,

SOFTLY !
She is lying
With her lips apart;

Softly!
She is dying
Of a broken heart.

Whisper!
Life is growing
Dim within her breast;
Whisper!
She is going
To her final rest.

Gently!
She is sleeping,
She has breathed her last!
Gently!
While you 're weeping
She to heaven has passed.

Wend , love, with me, to the deep woods wend,
Where far in the forest the wild flowers keep,
Where no watching eye shall over us bend,
Save the blossoms that into thy bower may peep.
Thou shalt gather from buds of the oriole's hue,
Whose flaming wings round our pathway flit,
From the saffron orchis and lupin blue,
And those like the foam on my courser's bit.

One steed and one saddle us both shall bear,
One hand of each on the bridle meet;
And beneath the wrist that entwines me there,

Not the rush and the tread
Of crowds in the city street,
But dusk in the still trees overhead
And the soft ferns under feet.

Not the roar of the throng
Where the shining windows gleam,
But a hermit-thrush in his evensong,
And a murmuring valley stream.

Not the dust and the cry
Of the hot streets walled with stone,
But white hill-mists, and the quiet sky
Where the wide, bright stars are strown!

Go lytle quayre, god gyue the wel to sayle
Io that good sheppe, ycleped Bertelet
For through it thou mayst the more preuayle
A gaynst the rockes, that blyndly ben yset
Vp on the land thy substaunce for to fret
And from all nacyons, if that it be thy lot
Lest thou be hurt, medle not with a Scot.

And to thy readers, as custome is to say
Do thy deuoyr, but to wydowes chefely
Desyringe them to take it as in play
For that to do, was myne entent truely
Desyryng them to accept my fantasy

Theses on archetypes in rapsters' lyrics,
Menus describing hash in panegyrics,
Cheap vases aping Mings—
Pretentious things
Remind me of you.
Loud slurping noises from the next apartment,
A critic's lecture on what Hitler's art meant,
Dead snakes the tomcat brings—
Disquieting things
Remind me of you.

You came, swell dame, swooped down on me.
Like Visigoths you looted me,
You burnt me down, then booted me.

Lines sliced to little bits by deconstruction,
Loose gobs of fat removed by liposuction,

Shalt thou be conquered of a human fate
My liege, my lover, whose imperial head
Hath never bent in sorrow of defeat?
Shalt thou be vanquished, whose imperial feet
Have shattered armies and stamped empires dead?
Who shall unking thee, husband of a queen?
Wear thou thy majesty inviolate,
Earth's glories flee of human eyes unseen,
Earth's kingdoms fade to a remembered dream,
But thine henceforth shall be a power supreme,
Dazzling command and rich dominion,
The winds thy heralds and thy vassals all