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“I sleep, but my heart waketh….”
HAST thou heard the voice of my Belov’d? | |
| Alack! is he silent still? | |
| Didst thou smell the perfume of his locks | |
| As he skipped upon the hill? | |
| |
| Did he say: “Go down and greet my Bride | 5 |
| Amid the tents of Kedar? | |
| In the house whose rafters are of fir, | |
| Whose casements are of cedar. | |
| |
| Is she dreaming at the pleasant feast | |
| All laved in spice and roses? | 10 |
| With cool ointment on her throat and hands | |
| From secret garden-closes. | |
| |
| O, why must I dwell far from her | |
| And from her running fountains? | |
| I am lonely on the barren heights, | 15 |
| Yet God calls from the mountains….” | |
| |
| Behold! if ye hear my lover cry | |
| As Ammi-nadib’s lances, | |
| Then say: “She sleeps but her heart waketh, | |
| She neither sings nor dances.” | 20 |
| |
| As fish-pools of Heshbon weep her eyes, | |
| As willows trail her tresses, | |
| Her neck is like a drooping tower, | |
| She yearns for thy caresses. | |
| |
| Come down from the hills and harp to her, | 25 |
| Come down and stay her sorrow: | |
| Is not the winter over and past | |
| And lilies bloom to-morrow? | |
. . . . . Yet she only saith: “He bideth long, | |
| Ah, when is he returning?” | 30 |
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