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From “I Sing of My Life While I Live It”
ROSE and amber was the sunset on the river, | |
| Red-rose the hills about Bingariz. | |
| High upon their brows, the black tree-branches | |
| Spread wide across the turquoise sky. | |
| I saw the parrots fly— | 5 |
| A cloud of rising green from the long green grasses, | |
| A mist of gold and green winging fast | |
| Into the gray shadow-silence of the tamarisks. | |
| Pearl-white and wild was the flood below the ford. | |
| I ran down the long hot road to thy door; | 10 |
| Thy door shone—a white flower in the dusk lingering to close. | |
| The stars rose and stood above thy casement. | |
| I cast my cloak and climbed to thee, | |
| To thee, Makhir Subatu! . . . . . . . . | |
| Naked she stood and glistening like the stars over her— | 15 |
| Her hair trailed about her like clouds about the moon— | |
| Naked as the soul seeking love, | |
| As the soul that waits for death. | |
| White with benediction, pendulous, unfolding from the dark | |
| As the crystal sky of morning, she waited, | 20 |
| And leaned her light above the earth of my desire. | |
| Like a world that spins from the hand of Infinity, | |
| Up from the night I leaped— | |
| To thee, Makhir Subatu! . . . . . . . . | |
| Pearl-bright and wild, a flood without a ford, | 25 |
| The River of Love flowed on. | |
| Her eyes were gleaming sails in a storm, | |
| Dipping, swooning, beckoning. | |
| The dawn came and trampled over her; | |
| Gray-arched and wide, the sanctuary of light descended. | 30 |
| It was the altar where I lay; | |
| And I lifted my face at last, praying. | |
| I saw the first glow fall about her, | |
| Like marble pillars coming forth from the shadow. | |
| I raised my hands, thanking the gods | 35 |
| That in love I had grown so tall | |
| I could touch the two lamps in heaven, | |
| The sun and moon hanging in the low heaven beneath her face. | |
| How great through love had I grown | |
| To breathe my flame into the two lamps of heaven! . . . . . . . . | 40 |
| O eyes of the eagle and the dove, | |
| Eyes red-starred and white-starred, | |
| Eyes that have too much seen, too much confessed, | |
| Close, close, beneath my kisses! | |
| Tell me no more, demand me no more—it is day. | 45 |
| I see the gold-green rain of parrot-wings | |
| Sparkling athwart the gray and rose-gold morning. | |
| I go from thy closed door down the long lone road | |
| To the ricefields beyond the river, | |
| Beyond the river that has a ford. . . . . . . . . | 50 |
| I came to thee with hope, with desire. I have them no longer. | |
| Sleep, sleep; I am locked in thee. . . . . . . . . | |
| Thus the exile lover remembers thee, Makhir Subatu! | |
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