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From “Songs of the Coast-dwellers”
DEATH’S first snows are drifting on my cheek, | |
| Pale are my lips | |
| As the kiss of Cin-Uza; | |
| I lie low and still. | |
| Near me crouch my silent kinsmen, | 5 |
| They hold the breath and wait the hour of wailing; | |
| They have wrapped the scarlet mourning blanket | |
| Round the shoulders of the oldest man; | |
| He has taken their sorrow. | |
| He droops at my door | 10 |
| Like a bleeding hawk where the eagles have battled. | |
| He is so old he feels not any grief, | |
| His heart is cold, | |
| In his ears no sound is, | |
| And in his eyes no light. | 15 |
| Therefore have my kinsmen given him their griefs— | |
| Because the dawn leaps clear into their eyes, | |
| Because the sound of women’s feet | |
| Rustling on the cedar mats when the torch is blown | |
| Calls sweetly to their ears, | 20 |
| And their hearts are beating for the hunt. | |
| They may not bear the sorrow of my passing, | |
| We have known strong joys together! | |
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| I take your loves, my kinsmen, | |
| I leave with you no griefs! | 25 |
| Sing, my kinsmen, when ye swing me | |
| To the topmost branches of the cedar. | |
| Sweet-smelling arms of cedar, reach for me, | |
| Tenderly receive me, | |
| Hold me in the Last Caress under open sky! | 30 |
| Sing, my kinsmen, when the oldest man | |
| Takes his lone trail through the forest. | |
| He will wear no mourning-blanket when he comes again tomorrow! | |
| He will say, “Rejoice— | |
| I have borne your grief afar, | 35 |
| I have buried it deep, | |
| The place is not known.” | |
| The wind of your singing shall rock me | |
| In the arms of my mother, the cedar. | |
| Yet there is a sweeter song, my kinsmen; | 40 |
| It is the Change-Song of Supreme One. | |
| I hear it now, | |
| He chants it to my heart; | |
| Because pale death has crossed my threshold, and has clasped my hand. | |
| “Fear not,” sings Supreme One; | 45 |
| “I am making pure, making pure, | |
| I destroy not life, | |
| I am Life-maker!” | |
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| The oldest man has entered the forest. | |
| Ah! Ah! my kinsmen are wailing; | 50 |
| They saw me depart with Death | |
| Into the White Change. | |
| But I go on—and on! | |
| And I sing the Change-Song of Supreme One: | |
| Ha-k eohos la no-ya ai-a me la-la | 55 |
| Q’ oalahag’ i-h-e-e- la-wo! | |
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