Every day brings a ship,
Every ship brings a word;
Well for those who have no fear,
Looking seaward well assured
That the word the vessel brings
Is the word they wish to hear.
Life is the body's light; which, once declining,
Those crimson clouds i' th' cheeks and lips leave shining:-
Those counter-changed tabbies in the air,
The sun once set, all of one colour are:
So, when death comes, fresh tinctures lose their place,
And dismal darkness then doth smutch the face.
Like the sweet apple that reddens
At end of the bough--
Far end of the bough--
Left by the gatherer's swaying,
Forgotten, so thou.
Nay, not forgotten, ungotten,
Ungathered (till now).
Like an Ivy caught in violets,
a full moon trapped by pythons two;
or a beauty of China
wearing the sacred thread
Like a tulip, my robe I'll rent,
and come forth;
O Padmani, I'm thy loved,
infamed by my love
Sending
In delinquency
To disappoint
The amber of water
At a high soul
lightning -
chinks in cloud's armour
are revealed
...
Lighting one candle
with another candle--
spring evening.
Translated by Robert Hass
light of the moon
moves west - flowers' shadows
creep eastward
“Our loss was light,” the paper said,
“Compared with damage to the Hun”:
She was a widow, and she read
One name upon the list of dead
Her son, her only son.
