Oscar Williams

From “Under the Sun”

I

I WAS begotten in joy

And born in pain,

As a raindrop is begotten in gold

And born in gray;

And in the heart of me, as in the heart of the raindrop,

The twilight and the rainbow

Keep their rendezvous.

As dawn, moving among the dews,

Stirs the shadows that slumber in them,

So have you, beloved one,

Rustled your delicate gold

Among my dreams.