UC-NRLF SB E7S GIFT OF ORIENTAL VERSES BT BERNARD WESTERMANN SAN FRANCISCO WHITAKER & RAY-WIGGIN CO, J 9 I 3 COPYRIGHT 1913 BY WHITAKER & RAY-WIGGIN Co. CONTENTS PAGE Oriental Verses 5 Nirvana 6 Panama 7 The Call of the East - 8 Fujiyama 9 By the Canal 10 The Fox Shrine 11 Mitsugahama ., 12 To the Miyajima Tori 14 Waiting 15 Mist and the Curtain of Night 16 To Tensho Daijin 17 The Conqueror 18 Kamarada ~ 19 The Boxers 20 The Wheel 21 Ishi No Yama 22 My Garden 23 Mirume 24 Passing Sails 25 Heroism 26 Shimonoseki 27 De Senectute 28 Inscription From the Japanese 30 The Bottom of the Sea _ 31 Ways Forgot 33 Asleep 34 The Fog on the Downs 36 Herodias Daughter 38 Naturae Dolor _ 41 The Dreamer of Dreams 42 Turn, Truant Days 43 The Tribute to the Minotaur _ 44 The Spirit of the Foam 45 The Gate of Tears 46 The Bond 47 The Father s Children , 49 The Hermit Thrush 51 The Mermaid 53 Balshazar 55 Shinto 59 The Goblin King !!..."."..!!!!!!!". 65 Glow Golden Ocean 67 Samothoe 68 The Heart That Eemembers .. 69 292189 O E I E N T A L ORIENTAL VERSES Old Hafiz, and thou, maker of silk tents Of Nishapur, and thou who carvedst well Upon a cherry tree what thou wouldst tell To Nihon s captive lord, hence, hence, O hence The massive meter and the heavy sense That ever in our best creations dwell ! Your thoughts are fountains, ours are like a well ; Our hearts are groping in a void immense. A granite column ours, a seaward plain, Yours of the Orient a mosque divine, Silvery, shining, living, till the fane Like Nature s self breathes in the soft moon shine, A poppy opening amid golden grain, A sword, a mirror, in a traceried shrine. [5] VERSES NIRVANA There is Amida, sublime and high, Who far in a Daimyo s garden stands, Eyes half closed, he has crossed his hands ; He waits for nothing, he cannot die. He has tasted and drunk of the wines of life, Of every passion and conquered each, Till a silent power has changed the strife To the sentient calm that the soul may reach. [6] OBIENTAL VERSES PANAMA A thousand streams, a thousand currents flow, An embassy of ships seeks, mile on mile, To greet thee where, with thine eternal smile, Thou givest each to each the deeps below. Priestess of Earth s new marriage ! Shy and slow The East looked on the West ; there is no wile But is her secret, yet a weary while She waited, looking to the sunset s glow. Till with thy living, sacramental tide Lo ! they are one. Let the white surges play The anthem of the bridegroom and his bride Forever hoping, now forever gay ! Fly thou, great eagle, bear the tidings wide To strands afar that know not of our day. (71 OEIENTAL VEBSES THE CALL OF THE EAST Gold and the plotting of men And the steam of a city at night! Better the reek of a fen And a thousand fevers to fight. Who would be crampt in a pen Who can lie under heaven at night? Hundreds of buildings to tower Over the hard flagged way, Hundreds of clocks on the hour Filtering and gilling the day. What is there worth to say When ten thousand tongues are repeating Slander, and lies and cheating Over the way? As for me, I was called and I came, Not to find, not to leave, But a wind came, blowing my name, And, behind, who would grieve? Death is a longer going And life but a short reprieve. You say there is nothing to do No life to live, in the East. What of the rest, and you, Say you drink and feast Of music, art, books and the play, Is that living? Or is it living least, Watching most, all the day?"" Is life on the page, in the scroll, on the stage, Or out with the winds in their rage And the lights on the bay? [81 ORIENTAL VEESES FUJIYAMA Fuji is light and snow-crowned in the air, Like an old pyramid of cloud enwrought By cloud kings long ago when earth was fair To an eternal shape of beauty, fraught With all men s dreams, high hopes and steep despair. A hundred vales of flowers shall grow bare, A thousand peoples pass, and when they go, Still, on untenanted calm heights of snow, The smile of Shaka will dwell changeless, there. [9] ORIENTAL VERSES BY THE CANAL Lo the swift years like silent ships go by. With golden sails or grey they pass and fade, Bearing their cargoes each, wrought out and made, Symbols of all that is beneath the sky, Iron and wool and the rich Tyrian dye, Bones, and bright onyx, lead and lambent jade. But see ! by quay and bank, empty and floating high, Uncargoed barks, anear, their stately sweep-oars ply. [10J ORIENTAL VEKSES THE FOX SHRINE In the green dawn to the silent door Who cometh, warily, warily, When I and my children lie on the floor And they laugh merrily, merrily? He cometh without with a silent tread; Who knoweth? Of old I have seen him; In a nest of leaves is his burrowed bed And a spray of pine to screen him. His coat is bright as the maple leaf, His eye is keen, is keen. Lo, if ever lovers be come to grief, Tis he that hath come between. I built him a shrine in the camphor grove And decked it cheerily, cheerily, Spiced with sandal-wood and with clove ; And when he cometh wearily, wearily, The blossoms glow and the tapers gleam, And within in the dim array He seeth himself and he falleth adream : So he worketh no ill that day, that day, He worketh no ill that day! EH] OEIENTAL VERSES *MITSUGAHAMA Noon wanes and shadows broaden on the wall ; The hum recedes, the turning of grim wheels Grows less, and down the long and whispering hall The wasted glory of the sunset steals. And so from noon I journey into night. What kens my day of all the hours? Not one But might be seeing golden kingdoms won And kingly camps, and armed foes in flight. Day goes, comes night with dark, long hours of pain, When from my couch I watch the lantern light Approach and die, approach and die again, Till all things die except the living night. And one within ! I have not known him well, In the quick-fired days of haste and act, But he has waited shyly ; when I fell And since, when I have lain lone, pent and rackt, He speaks unceasing. His of old were dreams And magic pictures of the days to come ; He used, he says, to drink of wondrous streams Now dry, and list to voices that are dumb, Voices that clearly spoke of high, bright things In a free world. And is the world yet free? *The Russian war prisoners were confined near this point. [12] OKIENTAL VEESES I tell him he should ask of the world s kings: Who am I now that he should ask of me? Then comes chill dawn, and at its breath, another Steals through the room. I have not seen his face, But he speaks kindly: Wherefore, gentle brother, Dwells ever sorrow in this silent place? Such is all life. But I of old was weary And sought beyond. My name is feared, but I, I know I found but rest and not the eerie Long dreaded silence of the men who die. Then every dawn I give my hand, and dimly He draws me, but the daylight comes too soon And the great wheels begin their turning grimly, And so from night I journey into noon. [131 ORIENTAL VERSES TO THE MIYAJIMA TORI Stand, mighty gate, portal of peace and prayer, In lonely beauty mid the waters stand. Who seeks the shrine in thy self-seeking land? The priest may bend, but comes the suppliant there? Once, rolled the voices of the gods in air; Their way is empty, silent is the strand, Save when those seek thee with the breezes bland Who bind the love-flowers in their midnight hair. And Hachiman goes never forth to war, Benten s sweet lute untouched the winds may ply Till the great Wheel hath turned its round once more And marts, and ports, and sounding mills shall die. Stand, mighty gate, and watch the times of yore Dawn yet again in that far, sunrise sky. [14] ORIENTAL VERSES WAITING I know the beach is white beside the sea, And bronzed fishers draw their golden nets Where the maned tide in myriad caverns frets In a far land where winds and life are free. I know there is on some untrodden lea A lodge of silence where the lamplight falls O er pictured faces on the twilight walls, And one has waited, waited long for me. [151 OBIENTAL VEESES MIST AND THE CURTAIN OF NIGHT Mist, and the curtain of night, And the sob of the sea on the stones, And a warning in basser tones Where the siren hard by the light Heaves in the surge and groans. Wrecks, and a dead man s bones, And a chilling phantom of fright. Mist, and the curtain of night, And the sob of the sea on the stones. [16J ORIENTAL VERSES TO TENSHO DAIJIN* The sunlight has shot with its arrows, And out of the valley below Has wakened the slumbering shadows And set Fujiyama aglow. Who comes with her shy silvern sandals From stream to stream swift down the steep? She gladdens the blossoms she handles, She laughs by the willows that weep. She bends where the earliest dawning Is slant through the glistening bowers, And brushes the tears of the morning From the wondering eyes of the flowers. Dear Goddess of glorious waking, As tender and fresh as the streams, Be with us when daylight is breaking, And lead us from dreams unto dreams. *The Sun Goddess. [17] ORIENTAL VERSES THE CONQUEROR He who treads in the van, However the torrent blows, He who strives as he can And counts not the horde of his foes, He who deems him a man And fearless his deeming shows, Needs neither fear nor plan. Just to walk in the throng Up on the hills or down, Just to trust and be strong, Never to know a frown, But head up, striding along, To wear a smile for a crown, And for sceptre, a song. [18] OEIENTAL VERSES KAMARADA Kamarada is in Lama, Where the silver waters flow Ever past the black, wide windows To the bright seas, deep below, Ever past the walls eternal Where eternal banners blow. There the ivy waves triumphant From the turrets of the wall, And across the silent lintel Where the feet of shadows fall, Shadows that abide eternal In the stone and gloomy hall. Pacing from the ivoried chamber Where the tinkling crystals talk In a tiny silvern treble, Pacing to the traceried walk Where forgotten sunbeams linger, Slow and ghostly see them stalk. Blue the changeless vault above them, Blue below, the liquid deep, But the grey of hoary winter Is upon the walls of Sleep, Winter that may never waken, Though its snows have ceased to weep. Winds the changeless serpent, coiling On the throne of polished gold, Guards the dragon still the doorway Where no footstep, howe er bold, Ever crosses to the silence That the nameless Shadows hold. [191 OBIENTAL VEESES THE BOXERS Oh for a white, white hull And smoking funnels of tan And a round boom out of the lull ! That were the sight for a man. A Catling gun and the tramp of feet And real men coming up the street, Men with red blood in their veins, And a thousand yelling devils would run, Not so much for the Catling gun But for men, men, men who have hearts and brains ! I know a tune that would stir My pulse if I d died a year! Mixed it is with the bullets whir Under the palm, under the fir That is the tune I would hear, With a fife, and a drum, And a shout, and a hum, And the white man s roaring cheer! What is the gleam in the sun By the temple, beyond the bazaar? Just a point, like a star, And then, look ! one by one See them shine! It s my flag! It s mine! And the waiting is done. [201 OEIENTAL VERSES THE WHEEL I met a Priest upon the way From Yamada to Noji-ri Where Mount Asama all the day Wears cloud-veils of the distant sea. And aye he droned a song that said : The Wheel is just; the Wheel is true, That reckons not of One or Two Nor all the Living nor the Dead. [211 OEIENTAL VEKSES ISHI NO YAMA I saw two men that strove upon a hill, Rolling a rock that, heavier than they, Stood in the path, and one of them to stay His yielding strength and his fast ebbing will, Shouted aloud with every fresh essay. But silent bowed the other to the load, Whose face I could not see, his body bent Like one whose very spirit was intent. And lo, the rock was moved, and by that road Up, o er the hill, all silently he went. [22] ORIENTAL VERSES MY GARDEN My garden is a hill above a shore And it is crowned with amaranth and rose, A pleasant breeze among the blossoms blows, And drowsy bees portime them evermore. Beneath, I know a rich and glittering store Of golden booty many a year has lain, Whose rumor is of old romantic lore, By black sea captains borne across the main. Still, be the beast of hunger at my door, No spade of mine shall strike one tendril pain ; The earth is full of many a sordid gain. Thank God it holds some few bright blossoms more. [23] OEIENTAL VERSES MIRUME* Mirume ! Mirume ! so she cried, Down by the billows, down by the tide, Down by the green, by the ebbing water, Kinemiewa the Sea God s daughter, Whose lover hath died. Mirume! Mirume! Where art fled? Many a furlong far, far sped, Down by the glimmering coral isles, Wooed to laughter by mermaids smiles, She dreameth thee dead. Mirume ! Mirume ! Doth she know None can wither and die below? Mid the sands that are deathless weaving, Windless, waveless, there is no grieving, Where thou dost go. Mirume ! Mirume ! Still she cries, Wet with tears are her cloud-grey eyes, Kinemiewa the Sea God s daughter Ever beside the cold, green water That never replies. *Kinemiewa, daughter of Irima. God of the sea and ships loved Mirume a deep sea sprite. He was unfaithful and went to dwell with the sea nymphs, but Kinemiewa, because neither she nor her father could live under the water, but only upon it, ever .mourned him as drowned. Pearls are her tears. [241 OEIENTAL VEESES PASSING SAILS The shadowed river meets the sunny strait, Wide bends the strait to mingle with the sea, And carven sampans veering through the gate, But never a word, O never a word for me ! Aye, one by one their prows the purple flood Weaveth to mist, their sails, the silver sky. Then shall I know that age hath touched my blood, When I have learned, unmoved, to watch them die. [251 ORIENTAL VERSES HEROISM To be up, to strive, and to do, To shine before men, a light, A meteor in the night, Guiding the hero few On to the hidden height, Now, with the future bright Is that what it means to you? To shout, to strike, to be proud Is easy, to this we were born. But to brave a world of scorn With lips closed and head bowed, When life is sombre and worn To keep your eyes on the morn, This is above the crowd. When the fife sings shrill, "Come away to the war ! There is glory for all, for all !" And the drums go prating over the hill, And they call for more for more ! It is easy to serve, and fall. But the house is still, so still, Where a woman stands at the door. Must we sunder and hew? Must we ride to the fight? Must we humble and smite? Is that the one way true To Truth and Beauty and Right? Or is there in God s calm sight, A place for the silent too? [261 ORIENTAL VEESES SHIMONOSEKI In the blue chill of morning, the great bell Of Kameyama speaks across the straits. I know the sun lies waiting by those gates Whose blue portcullis yester-evening fell. Thus, says my heart, Thine own beloved waits ! Sinks the bright day. The timid, silvern moon O er the gaunt heights begins to lure the sea To smiles; it is her changeless witchery; Still leaps his heart that languished all the noon. This, speaks my soul, is thy beloved to thee ! [27] OEIENTAL VEESES DE SENECTUTE The World hath aged, this World and his grim wife With many a year, with many a year and grey. Old age is in their blood, sleep and decay, And shunning of the bright and armored strife. Music that thrilled untroubling dies away. Yet I would reckon once again with life. I do not struggle, yet within I feel A strong, deep strain that will not be denied, That cries persistent, that when I have died I must have met the tyrant and his steel, Have fought the battle, and gone down in pride Where the scythed chariot turns its glittering wheel. What mettle and what temper were the rest I do not know, I have no speech to tell ; I dwelt apart, for I could never dwell As they, I only know : to fight my best, Once to have wrought all knightly, that were well. [28] OBIENTAL VEESES And if, in the red morning, when the fray Has faded with the army of the stars, One reads my breast and knoweth all that mars Is but the clouding of a friendless day, He knows I too bear wounds beneath my scars, Where still beats on a heart long hid away. Grant me one work, brief, high and set with fear, That I may do straightly and to the end, And for a moment at its closing bend And hearken to a voice I long to hear : My own soul saying, Truly wrought, O friend. L29] ORIENTAL VEESES INSCRIPTION FROM THE JAPANESE Of all men ancient and wise that dwell, What cometh, what goeth alike tis well, Who dareth to say? But I heard by the Kando of Kori Ken That that which is lost and is found again Is dearer than aye. [30] ORIENTAL VERSES THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA Ships of Cathay and Nishapur and Tyre, Sidonian quinqueremes with gold in store, Tribute to Zenghis Khan s untamed desire From Xenday and the. blue Circassian shore, These are my heritage and thousands more ! Junks of Camul and caravals of Spain, Convoys from Elephanta, pearls and slaves, A monarch s lust, an empire s greed of gain Designed to glut, they rest beneath my waves. Room? There is room for all, and soundless graves ! Fronds that are deathless sway upon the stream, Anemones that lave their shining arms Subtljy emit a phosphorescent gleam And waving, wield dim, mesmerismic charms On all below, and soothe the gloom s alarms. Fair grow the gaunt, black wrecks with violet moss, Increscent carbuncles, and tufted sprays Of coral ; here no longer need they toss, Fretted and tried, but happy in their loss They slumber, dreaming, through soft, umber- ous days. [311 OEIENTAL VEESES Seamen of Ophir, Tharsis and the Ind, Carthage and Venice and the Albion isles, Wearied and wave worn wrestlers with the wind Calmy repose; for each a mermaid smiles And lulls his spirit with soft, Lydian wiles, Sunk in the peace of my deep, mystic realm, Where nightly o er the gilded planets pass And the dim hulls of ships, but never helm Nor rudder stirs to labor, neath the whelm Of waters, green and tranquil as a glass. Strange irradescent fish, a pallid light Diffusing, glide through port and breach agape, Great serpents, bred in subaquanean night, Vast, bloated monsters, armed for war and rape, Leviathan, and beasts of scorpion shape. Silent, the sands creep, slow, pervading all, Shifting and changing softly in the flow, Silting through seam and crevice, till they pall And shroud the sleepers in their kingly hall, Roofed with sardonyx, paved with gold below. [32] ORIENTAL VEESES WAYS FORGOT Deep in each heart doth silent dwell One who of other worlds could tell, And ways forgot, Often communing from afar With many a spirit-peopled star, But speaking not. Till sudden, at some magic sound Or sight, or scent, his heart hath found, And used to know, He touches all the quivering strings That twine the heart, and whispers things Of long ago. A ray at sunset, like a word Far spoken, yet distinctly heard, The hum of day In all its noon grown to a dream, A look that makes the great world seem To slip away, And in its place, a shade behind The wistful portals of the mind, A long closed story, Whose words sublime we hearkened, then Unknowing, passed beyond their ken, But not their glory. And do we sleep, and stirring hear Muffled, the sounds of Day that, clear, Go on forever? And shall we rouse to stronger sight, To perfect memory of the light, That darkened never? L33J ORIENTAL VERSES ASLEEP Slumber and reverie steal on the valley, Sleep in a shroud, In a sunlit mist as of dreams, Where a white-breasted, indolent cloud Swims, till it seems That the hills have yielded and bowed In an endless reverie over the valley ; Even the streams Murmur but sleepily, sing not aloud. And the voice of the bird is still In the infinite, shrouded deeps, And the wheel is hushed of the mill Where the dark stream seeps. They have sung their fill, The bird and the mill, And the world, it sleeps. Billowless, breathing free sleepeth the south sea, Guiltless of storm, With a thousand fathoms below, And a breast where the sun is warm And islands glow, That are fragile and fair of form. Billowless, breathing free laves them the south sea, Daily they grow, Nurtured in quietness, thoughtless of storm. [34] OEIENTAL VERSES And the pink-tinged cockles float Into the mystic deep. Silently steals each boat To the coral keep, To the still lagoon, Whose walls all hewn, Their builders sleep. [35] ORIENTAL VEBSES THE FOG ON THE DOWNS The sea has called, and the restless fog has come From Labrador, with cloud-built tents, and show Of ghostly legions, legions that are dumb, That, never hastening, glide where e er they go. The sea, their ally, with his muffled drum, Is sounding on, and yonder is the foe, The sentinel cliffs, close-ranged, now mutely grand, Now vocal with an inbreathed voice of woe, A voice of lamentation for the land Whom the stern sea is stealing from them slow With but the beckoning of his master hand, And she, the white one, shivering must go. So wrapt am I, so shepherded alone In the vast fold, my every step is pent And fearful, not my shadow is my own, I float, an island in the firmament ; I know no world save what is briefly lent And briefly taken, while a vast unknown Boils round about, mocking the little shown, Surging and speechless in its discontent. Were but this curtain by some sea-breeze blown, Some strong, keen gale from o er the salt leagues fleeing, What wide and stirring scene of wave on stone And cloud-born winds the prisoned billows free ing! Were but one step to hurl me from this throne, Or raise me from this depth of lesser being, What is beyond, that infinite Alone That life and death are preludes to the seeing? [361 OEIENTAL VEBSES Like the grey sheep that ruminating- stray This seaward down, we wander girt and blind. Forever clouds shut in their viewless day ; Are mists within and fogs without combined To blur their vision and to keep confined Their patient gaze? So is the lordlier mind Bounded by barriers, hemmed by mists, the way Uncertain on, forever lost behind. Burned their not that one spark in spite of rain, That spirit free to break the mould of clay, That heart within contemptuous of the chain, That other self, unshackled to the brain, Whose dwelling is afar, who can away, And down the gulf can traverse to that main The white-winged sea-gulls seek, nor finding, turn again. [37] OKIENTAL VEESES HERODIAS DAUGHTER Great Antipas, the son of Malthace And Herod, Archilaus brother, king, Tetrarch of Perea, Galilee And east and south from Jordan s hidden spring, Looked from his carven throne above a board Strewn with the riches that the black barks bring From Fez and Firzan, laden with a horde Of sweets from all the spice isles, and the lord Still discontent, called Heroda to sing. Her form was lithe, her step was light and gay, She danced as never mortal danced before. Her hair was dark and tumbled, fell away, Her sandaled feet the faster beat the floor. Her silk-scarved bodice rose and fell, the pink Came in her cheek, her mouth a crimson door For love sighs framed, half-opened, seemed to drink A faint intoxication, till the brink Some sweet sound sought and song came flow ing o er. Mother of beauty, daughter of my sires, Thou parent fire of this dancing flame, I give thee joy! Of all thy heart s desires What e er thou askest, let thy daughter name. Though half my realm be tribute to her charms, My dower to beauty Caesar s self shall shame. I own my kingdom captive to thine arms! [38] ORIENTAL VEESES He spoke. The princes stirred with vague alarms ; A whisper rose and none knew whence it came. The captains and the chiefs peered down the board With rustling silks. The two dark heads were bent Together in a sinister accord, Their floating curls beneath the lamplight blent. Till like a willow bowed beside a brook, Released when spring a budding life hath lent, The girl s form, thin-veiled, straightened, and a look Shone in her eyes that all the radiance took From lamps and gems and left them pale and spent. And Antipas cried loudly, Ask ! Tis thine ! And while she held each bearded countenance chained : I ask to drink, O Herod, redder wine Than any that my lips this night have drained. Hither, upon a charger, bring, she cried, The head^of John with all his blood bestained! And red the flush as if reflected dyed Her glowing face ; and with revengful pride Herodias beheld her victory gained. Below, in dungeons tenanted by night, Broke on the prophet s dream the headsman s tread, While many a form without in hurried flight, L39] OEIENTAL VERSES The tidings through the long, dark marches spread. And e er a gilded slave triumphant bore In smiling pomp aloft that mighty head They spread from mouth to mouth, from door to door, Till One beside the Galileean shore Listened and knew His messenger was dead. [40] OEIENTAL VEESES NATURAE DOLOR Why are the eyes of violets sad With unshed tears, And yet the songs they hear are glad. There are no fears For violets and no spiteful years. Why do the willows sadly weep Above the lake, Seeming to watch a loved one s sleep Who will not wake. And yet the willows have no hearts, to break. [411 OEIENTAL VEKSES THE DREAMER OF DREAMS My tower looks on the white and green Of a surging sea, with the rocks between Where seaweeds stranded at ebb of tide Despairing, have lingered and hopeless died Ere their strong eternal lover, the sea Surged back to reclaim them and set them free. By day the clouds are drifting by Into the measureless, out of the sky Till they yield and shrink when the sunset s bars Are broken and all the thronging stars, Pale prisoners peer on the wine-dark sea, The rocks, the taper-lit tower, and me. My taper flickered the long nights through, Yet no one saw it, or ever knew That it burned, yet maybe it still will call Some friend from the measureless, after all, Who knows? There may on that broad, dim sea Be one I seek and that seeks for me. One who has dreamed the things I dream, To whom they are as to me they seem, Who knows the voice of the waves as strong They sing their mighty, their deathless song, Who owns the touch of the tender hand I have felt in dreams, and will understand. [42] ORIENTAL VEESES TURN, TRUANT DAYS Turn, truant days, turn, turn your flight. The song is old and I have heard it oft, And often echoed when the breeze was soft And each dear day embraced a sweeter night, Turn, truant days, turn, turn your flight! Turn, truant days, pursue your flight: I have unlearned the measure of my song. Who learns to wait, though he hath waited long, The past is dark, the future is alighi! Turn, truant days, pursue your flight: Turn, truant days, turn, turn your flight, Your orbit is eternal, and before, I see your faces lighting me once more Like stars, upon the bosom of the night. Turn, truant days, turn, turn your flight ! [431 ORIENTAL VEESES THE TRIBUTE TO THE MINOTAUR After the Painting by Gendron. Maidens of light, expectant still and grieving, Your garments trail the flood, your hands up raised To guard your fear-filled eyes, your bosoms heav ing, Has dread so left you motionless and dazed? The wave beats not upon the stony portal, The ship sways silent at its dripping sill. And hath He spared you? Beauty is immortal, And all is still, forever, ever still. Down the dark cavern by the torches flaring The sandal d feet have flitted into gloom. Inured to joy, once gladness ever bearing, How can they bear you to the call of doom? Your garland lilies from Orontes valleys, Tenderly glowing, see they drink their fill Of the salt tide that coldly o er them rallies, But all is still, forever, ever still. Wind thy sad horn, O boatman dimly peering, Rouse the gaunt raven from his nameless feast. Sleep is the end of all that thou art fearing: Silent the victim, silent is the priest. For Time s dim courts are thronged with all the fairest Of every age. They triumph o er his will Deathless are they, the burden that thou bearest. All, all is still, forever, ever still. [44J OEIENTAL VEESES THE SPIRIT OF THE FOAM I was born of rainbow foam In my father s sea-green home, And I know no lord or king Where I roam. I am free, the deeps beneath me And the snow-white gulfs to wreath me With an opalescent ring, And the dome, Laughing eyes or cloudy frown It is mine, I love it well ; When the wave is on the swell Up goes my cockle shell, And down, Oh, down ! There s a palace built for me In the sunlit summer sea, And its walls are all of pearl, And of jade, Where the coral gnomes are toiling Down beneath the waters boiling, Unafraid. There, if some poor mortal drown, Bear him lightly, bear him well ; When the wave is on the swell Up goes my cockle shell, And down, Oh, down ! [451 ORIENTAL VERSES THE GATE OF TEARS Two gates there are on the path of life That stretches away through the years, And one is the gate of joy, dear love, And one is the gate of tears. And one is set in a meadow deep Where sweet-scented flowers cloy, And your feet are wet with the dew, dear love, And that is the gate of joy. And the other is hard by a mighty rock, Where a bristling wood uprears, And your feet are pierced with the stones, dear love, And that is the gate of tears. And when you come to the meadow gate, Where a thousand hopes decoy, It may be that I shall be far away When you pass through the gate of joy. But when you come to the rocky gate, Whatever the future years, God grant I be by your side, dear love, When you pass through the gate of tears. [461 OBIENTAL VEESES THE BOND I looked on one whose death was nigh, I saw his palsied fingers shake, But there was fire when he spake, Life struggled bravely in his eye. Till some strong spring upwelling high, The soul its secret fetter broke And, standing in his eyes, it spoke As one who knows he shall not die. God never made me to abhor The light, the language of the sun, Unbounded freedom, never one Of all His hosts doth love it more. And power is in me now to soar, Blazing and bright, His heavens wide, Yet here in daily chains I bide, My bondage groweth evermore. Like one who in some cunning keep, Some prison built for doomed men, Sees daily all the walls that pen His little space upon him creep, Filled with a strength that fain would leap And strive to hurl the ramparts down That cramp his limbs, he can but frown Upon the Silence, till he sleep. [47] OEIENTAL VERSES God never made me to deform My likeness with a borrowed mould, A mask with hundred handlings cold, When all my life beneath beats warm ! I love to rule myself the storm, To wield the lightnings that within Fight to be free. They call them sin : God knows, He made them in His form. God never made a death to fear. I know no end ; and yet I wait Within the confines of a state Where dwelleth all that I hold dear And know not, when that change draws near That is to free me of my chain, If I shall look on aught again For which I would have freedom here. Who made me of the frame of God And put in heart and brain His fire, He knows the battle of desire Against the dull, encumbering sod. Who put within my hand the rod Whose wielding is His deathless joy, He knows he hath not framed a toy, But He hath made, and chained, a god. [48] ORIENTAL VEBSES THE FATHER S CHILDREN A father led all of his children One after another, alone To a room that was sunny and cheerful, Though faced with a coping of stone, Of grim, granite rock and of stone. He left them there, barring securely The door, and he came not again, And some of the children were happy, Pretending themselves to be men, Imagining that they were men. They played with their toys and their baubles, They laughed in their vain, childish pride, But some of them grew very weary, And some were neglected, and cried, And some there were lonely that cried. Some called to their father, and wondered When he would release them at last, But the father afar never answered, And slowly the long hours passed, Yes, surely, the long hours passed. And others caught up the bright playthings And kept them, and gloated in greed, But some there were hurt in the struggle, And some were in hunger and need. Some children there were who had need. [49] OKIENTAL VERSES At last, when the sunlight was dying, They all grew afrighted alone; All day they had longed for their father And cried to the wall that was stone, The cold, cruel wall all of stone. Some said he had never existed, And some had forgotten his name, But they all fell asleep in the darkness, And when it was morning, he came. With the sun in its rising, He came. L 50 J OEIENTAL VERSES THE HERMIT THRUSH I who have been alone so long, So much apart have sung my song In solitary ways, It seems a grevious thing and wrong That I amidst the stranger throng Must finish out my days. It all is strange, and strangest, men. My days are few; I know not when My cage shall cease to bind. Then, like my song, shall I be free And floating through eternity Leave worlds and men behind? For here, they know not what I sing; They hark as to a lifeless thing, And when my song is sung, They do not know my heart is there, All palpitating on the air, Ecstatic, rapture wrung. Ah, I have poured my life so long In many a burst of spirit song, My strength is ebbing fast And all the fires of all the years And all man s transports and his tears Must die in me at last. [51] OBIENTAL VEESES I only sang my song to God, The lowly flower, the virgin sod, The sympathic wood, But these that go their hurried way About me, through the garish day Have never understood. Alone, would I in joy expire, As fire restored to parent fire, The stream that finds the sea. What Nature gives she understands, Though fallen in blind, neglectful hands She hearkens unto me. L52J OEIENTAL VEESES THE MERMAID By the phosphorous gleam, by the pole star s beam, By the wheel house lantern white, I see her rise neath the star-set skies, When the sea-mew cries, By night. She beckons and calls to her emerald halls, She tuneth her living lyre, And she melts away in the ocean spray At the break of day, In fire. Black is her hair and her face is fair, Like a corpse she is pale and cold, And she beckons me to the deep, dark sea, Boisterous and free, And bold. Sweetly she sings where the sea dirge rings, Where the sands go creeping slow; Houses of pearl bright flags unfurl, Where the currents whirl And flow. Singeth she soft when the stars are aloft, Singeth she loud in the gale ; When winds low winging, the waves are flinging, I hear her singing, And quail. L53] OEIENTAL VEESES Come down to my realm, O thou man at the helm ! Come down unto us, cries she; Riches we bring from the Islands of Spring, To make you a king Of the sea! Glide and flow, glide and flow, Come to my castles of gold below. Mermaids are sleeping, sands are creeping, Soft and slow, soft and slow. Glide and flow, glide and flow, Never a storm in our realm doth blow ! Kings of the earth sleep here below, Soft and slow, soft and slow. L54J ORIENTAL VERSES BALSHAZAR All Babylon is light, the rich and rare, The courted capital of Assyria s kings. And many a strain of music fills the air, And many a scent the night-born blossom flings, Till the deep midnight to the welkin rings. Balshazar makes a feast of golden wine, Who rules tonight o er many a princely hoard. His princes and his wives about him shine, With many a honeyed word whereon kings dine, And power and beauty wreathe the sumptu ous board. Balshazar makes a feast. High flames the fire Of pride and passion kindled in the heart, And none may dare withhold the king s desire, Who sells his subject slaves in many a mart, But sing his praises some, applaud them part. And the great revel swings with feast and song, Gay with the laughter of a thousand lips. Rolls the rich voice the sounding halls along, Loud and more boisterous, for the wine is strong That Vanity from jewelled goblets sips. Goblets of crystal, eye-bright in the flame, All roseate with wine, fair to the gaze, But the great king, imperious, calls the name Of his high treasurer, and in amaze [551 ORIENTAL VERSES He hastens, and he crieth "Length of days!" But great Balshazar bids him bring the gold And silver vessels from Jehovah s shrine In vanquished Jerusalem of old, Seized by his sire when Judea s fold Was ravaged by the wolf of Palestine. The gold and silver vessels, swiftly sought, All tremblingly the aged keeper brings, Sacred, with images and symbols wrought, And priceless to the treasures of Earth s kings. But louder still hilarious laughter rings ; And bold Balshazar brims the golden bowl, And all the sacred vessels of the shrine ; He drinketh deep, with laughter in his soul. So drink they all, and mocking murmurs roll From lip to lip down the voluptuous line. But lo, a sudden portent, grim, appears, Sudden, as from the skies a meteor shines, Filling the tyrant heart with awful fears That made its boast in spoiling sacred shrines. A hand, upon the wall, in fiery lines Of living brightness, in an unknown speech Writeth, and dim reverberant thunders sound. That spirit hand, beyond the monarch s reach Writes on ; the kingly cheek cold terrors bleach As he had trod a serpent on the ground. [561 OEIENTAL VEESES And MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PERES clear That blazing message burns. The feast of ease And laughter turns to unrestrained fear, And here and there a frightened favorite flees. As when a hostile hand a hive of bees Stirs with stern touch, from every honeyed comb They fly in clusters, startled, seek the light, And here and there bewildered straying, roam Still drowsy, with much protest, round the dome, Some scatter, startled to precipitate flight. As when the last left guardians of the hive, Despairing as it seems, break ope the cells Of treasured nectar, yet to taste alive Those precious sweets of chastened chalice- wells, And hopeless frenzy thoughts of flight dispels, So turn the revellers, many a one to quaff Again the fount of joy, while blazing Doom Spells its fierce summons, the insaner half Mocks its dread image, and with hollow laugh And feverish folly rings the banquet room. Great Daniel stands before the king this night, Whom swift the queen s own messengers have brought, Skilled in all omens ; and in him the light Of prophecy, who many a wonder wrought. But all his wisdom scorneth to be bought, Though many a promised land the king makes bloom, [571 OEIENTAL VEKSES Till now he speaks, and saith, "Behold the flame!" Yon is the message of thy certain doom, For God appoints another in thy room, And He hath marked destruction o er thy name. Thus shall it be : in balance thou art weighed And wanting found. Thy kingdom to the Mede, Ere many a time the trump of war hath brayed, Or many a time answered the valiant steed, Shall fall, the legacy of Iran s seed. Thou who with impious hands His cups hast drained, While all thy people drank to gods of stone, Under God s power alone thy line hath reigned, Under His power thy father s throne was gained, Who lifteth up and casteth down alone. Lo, swiftly came the storm. The conflict raged. Fast fighting fell Balshazar s hosts in vain, Against a mightier arm in strife engaged, He came to combat fated to be slain, He fought for kingdom who no more might reign. When violet dawn the sleeping heavens dyed, And scaled the shadow ramparts of his foe, The citadel of power and of pride, Where now no more might mirth and revel bide, Still in the arms of earth was stretched low. [581 ORIENTAL, VERSES SHINTO One autumn eve, when the rude wind had hurled The maned wave back and left the shore be reaved, (Silent and silvern she but lay and grieved, Beloved of the shy ripples as they curled Close to her side where her soft bosom heaved.) I saw a boat with neither oar nor sail Ride on the flood, and in the boat a man, And on the man a cloak of winding blue, And he seemed ancient as some Eastern tale Of genii from the land of Ispahan, As down the deep his silvery sampan flew. There sat, the while, by an old fir and bent, A maid of Kyushu in her gown of grey, With crimson geta for her lacquered shoon, Her obi with the cherry bloom besprent, And in her hair camelias. Soft and gay, Her voice was like a stream beneath the moon. Another stood and gazed upon the sea Dim were his eyes and leaned he on a staff, His ancient features withered into brown. Child of a dead, forgotten empire, he, Who lived to hear the new-born younglings laugh At the old realm forevermore gone down. And yet another came, the maiden s brother, Last named, as neither age nor weakness plead, But first, I judge, among true men and good. [591 OEIENTAL VERSES Straight, in the moon, I have not seen another Whose form so spoke of clear and knightly deed His mantel shadowed with a crested hood. Brother, I said, often have I beheld Somehow, afar, a dream within a dream, Yon silent, mystic mariner and eld, Whose fairy bark unstruggling wins the stream. Was it in forests where the fir is felled And tunic d woodmen swing with singing stroke And the shy spirit flees the shuddering oak, Or in the smithy, where the forges weld The argent metal in the ardent flame Swaying in rhythm with his shadowy frame, Then out into the dark where all is quelled. I think that once I sat beside a stone And ancient lantern by a tile-walled tomb, When slow he stole from the enshadowing gloom, And crooned softly in a monotone, And o er the sunset veiled his mantle blue, Saying: My little people, sleep to you! Then answered he whose frame was slim and true, Whose face was not as those who meanly war, Sir, you may see him seldom near the shore When storms and night the thundering depths embrew. Traverse the black canals where moonlight lies On masts of teak and hulls of carven oak, [601 OEIENTAL VERSES Where the slow lorcha from the quarry plies With wielded pole and stern-oar s timed stroke To where the sea tosses beneath the skies. The temple porch is red with lantern light, The low bazaar where flare a thousand lamps, The watchman clanking through the wide-eyed night All is a bivouac of waking camps, When far the foe lies silent in his might. Then comes the still approach, the mist of dawn, The grey ghost summoned from that time re mote, When, sailing in his silver cloud-built boat, The god came seeking to these coasts of morn. I see him then. His robe is woven fine, His shoon are ashen, and his voice is low, And then he speaks: What seek ye here to know, Far called and late to these dim shores of mine, Ye who are children of an alien line, Whose blood is not the blood within their veins Who are my children? It is I that reigns. Your sons have come from many a distant shrine, But in confusion shall ye turn again. What seek ye on these sacred shores of mine? I am of old, and you are only men ! Sister, what say you, is he not of those, Thy mother s kinsmen, dwellers of the isles, Whose temples gird the cryptomeria s files, [61] ORIENTAL VERSES Whose chants are in the evening breeze that blows By traceried walls in cedarn cloisters carved, Where daily cunning wreaths the. odorous wood, Where the grave bonzes stint their meager food, But still the geisha dance in scarlet scarved. She spoke, the words like summer showers On tired fields of autumn brown When thirst is in the pent-roofed town And tears are in the eyes of flowers : In many a word, in many a vision, In many a sound and glimpse, half caught, His presence, subtly inwrought, Hath stolen to my petty prison. The shadow circling o er the wall, The westering sun s red rays, and low, The sinking of my spirit s glow In starlit silence over all. I feel his magic far away, Far, far away, compelling, strong, Upon my trembling heartstrings play And tempt to dear delight and song. The waterfall s light plash, and soft The passing of a whispering breeze, The bird that stirs the plumes aloft Of fringed firs and ebon trees, He is the silent lord of these, Of censered gods in golden halls, Of silent shrines mid flowers and bees, Of wasty shores, and lamplit walls. And there is music in his sway, [62] OEIENTAL VEESES And deathless joyance in his smile; He fluteth softly, I am gay; He fluteth loudly, mile on mile I wander to the westering- day; And I can tell when I am sad That he is weak and fades away To dreaming, but his dreams are glad ! Age hath the last of all, and slow of speech, But sure of word, he spoke the reverend sage, Whose silence was the wisdom of his age, And his white hairs no pity need beseech : At times upon the winding roads that turn Through deep, rich lands to the clean, salty bay, Amid the smoke of dim blue fires, that burn Amid the chaff, I meet him in the way, With pipe for wand enwreathed with pungent fern, The mystic opiate of his secret sway. Mid checkered sunlight in a temple court, High-walled with brick and tiled with mossy stone, (Till the thick twilight cuts his glory short And lulls the clamor to a monotone), Like a striped lizard basks he in the noon, Or in a crevice of the western slopes, Above a field of flags amid the tune Of piping thickets, casts he horoscopes In penciled shadows on an imaged moon. Again, at dusk I meet him in a road, Between the paddy fields, when grey mist spreads L63] OEIENTAL VERSES Across the marshes, bending neath a load Of flaming flowers that nod their shining heads. Till the arch moon above the twisted pine Glints out, and the salt breeze is from the bay Where, by the shell road glistening with spray The sampans ride, and on my lips is brine. Then, then he lingers wilful in their mid The sleepy folk whose villages are dark Save for the brazier s glow but dimly hid Or the slim lantern s dim and fluttering spark. Perhaps, I do not know, but it is he That weaves the web of many a hempen strand Where the brown fishers wade into the sea And draw their shining victims to the land, And Kwannon prays ; all merciful is she ! Fly, shining sails, and find your wondrous strands, And you, dim sampans, to the inlet come; For those who pass seek on in distant lands. To Him the voices of unrest are dumb, To Him and whomsoever understands. Still the lights flare in the calm twilight bay And sampans lift their slow and slanting sails, And the rose glory o er the headland pales And gleams, and faints, but never dies away. Like drowsy children at the closing day, The little waves fall dreaming in the haze, But the proud junks, their burning pyres ablaze, Seek the wide deep with wings that will not stay. [641 OEIENTAL VEESES THE GOBLIN KING Beside the grim, the grey, cold sea, I heard a Goblin call to me Beneath a rock, beside the water, He cried: Go pray thy lady daughter To bring some wine to me. For coldly runs the salt, salt tide, And I am prisoned fast and long, And I was wont to feast and song, And roaming through the woodland wide ! Of old, of old I roamed the wood, Of old I dwelt in lordly state Before they came, the black-heart brood To make me thus disconsolate. For coldly runs the salt, salt tide, And stones are hard that prisons be, Yet here in daily hope I bide, That one will hear and come to me. They came with drums and dancing fire, And wreaths and chants and incense sweet; They stole away my heart s desire ; She was all fair and lithe and fleet. And coldly runs the salt, salt tide ; Alone, they bound and prisoned me, Nor may I taste of aught beside, Though well I know the sweets there be! A thousand gnomes brought golden urns, With red, red wine and crystal filled; And all my couch was flowers and ferns, And whatsoever maid I willed. [651 fl " ORIENTAL VERSES But coldly runs the salt, salt tide, And men ride up the high, white road, And many a goodly maid beside, Nor ever glance to my abode. The bee sucks sweetness all the day, And dwells in flowers from morn to night, But never, never need he stay, And never feels he gloom nor blight. But coldly flows the salt, salt tide, And I am weary of my breath, Though all the world is fair beside, And yet I taste nor life nor death. In feasts we sat at silken boards Endraped with silver gossameres, And round me sat my bearded lords, And maidens served whose sires were peers. And coldly runs the salt, salt tide; I loved too well and she was fair, And here in bondage dire I bide, Who never thought to know despair. I hate the stone, I fear the water ; I dread the grey, the moaning sea ; I pray thee bid thy lady daughter To fetch some wine to me. For coldly runs the salt, salt tide, And all the foam is salt and strong; And here, athirst and cramped, I bide ; And I have waited, waited long! [661 OEIENTAL VERSES GLOW GOLDEN OCEAN Glow, golden ocean, on thy silver sands ! The city stretches, grey and lonely, here, But o er its spires I know that thou art near, And when the task is heavy on our hands And gross earth-voices only do we hear Thou rollest free, and surging o er thy strands, Glow, golden ocean, on thy silver sands ! Earth binds her chains and lays her strait com mands, And we, her bondmen, do her constant will, But thou art far from engine and from mill, Thy speech is ever of unpeopled lands. So bid us dream, and dreaming, hoping still, The man-made city thick about us stands. Glow, golden ocean, on thy silver sands ! [67] ORIENTAL VERSES SAMOTHOE Samothoe, dim pilot and unseen, Who through the gloom my glinting bark dost guide, Whence springs the wind, where sets the mys terious tide That under all the moon s caressing sheen Draws ever on and will not be denied? Lost are the friendly shores that once we sailed beside. Samothoe, I hear the swelling drum, The great wind pipes upon the minor key Of floods in caverns that I cannot see. Guide, guide my bark, that when the torrent come Alone, upon us fleeting, thee and me, Our brows may yet be calm, our hearts may yet be free. Us] ORIENTAL VERSES THE HEART THAT REMEMBERS It is far from the hills to the wave tossed shore, From their deathless calm to its ceaseless war And the ebb and flow of the restless tide, And Time is heavy and Earth is wide, And the days will lag in the brightest fall, But the heart that remembers o ercomes them all. The surge will foam in its rainbow spray On boulder and cave through the long, bright day And roll far out in its phosphorent light Through the starlit hush of the listening night, And no one hark to its silent call, But the heart that remembers beats on through all. The myrtle will crimson, and bye and bye The winds o er its shivering branch will sigh, And the tangled paths will be white with frost And the way over boulder and brake be lost, And lonely leaves will flutter and fall, But the heart that remembers outlasts them all. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW .JUN 6 BEC.CIR. JW31 -83 s 4 4453 292189 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY