51

A single word sufficeth well The passion of a world to tell: The joy to view thee night to me Moved me to this long history.

Take Thou the faculty of speech From such as yearn Thy heart to reach, Knowest Thou not, that love conveys Eloquence in the tongueless gaze?

To sons of light naught else is known Except the messenger alone; The son of earth, in rank so base, High heaven holds in his embrace.

If but one atom I must give Of this the fabric that I live, Too great a price were that, for me To purchase immortality.

Great ocean, infinitely vast, Into Thy wave myself I cast; Yet not ambitious to obtain The pearl, or that far coast to gain.

Into my soul this meaning true Thou pourest like the summer dew, Whereof with sorrow and with sighs A new world dawns upon mine eyes.

52

How long the veil of eve and dawn About Thy beauty shall be drawn? Thy cheek display: make whole to me This incomplete epiphany.

O glad consuming! rapture fine! Thyself wouldst beg of me for wine If unto thee I did relate The intoxication of my state.

I added to the song of life The counterpoint of fiery strife; Scatter the dew that quenches drowth Into the tulip’s thirsty mouth.

Mind searched the volume thro’ and thro’ Love found at once the subtle clue; The clever bird will ever gain Beneath the snare the hidden grain.

Where is the song, and he that sung? Words are a lyre pretence has strung; I draw towards the camel train The erring beast without a rein.

In riddles yet I spake, forsooth; Now is the time for naked truth; Do Thou declare, where I shall lead My fellow travellers in their need.

53

One by one we count our breath On the narrow road to death; Like a raging sea we roar As we walk along the shore.

Though the terror of the sea Gives to none security, In the secret of the shell Self preserving we may dwell.

Ask them not to price the heart, Money changers of the mart; We can estimate alone The true merit of our stone.

Tribute none is asked of us For our fiefdom ruinous; Beggars sitting by the road, We are princes of our blood.

There is one (O wonderful!) Dwells beside me in my soul; Who shall say, if it be thee Or myself, I meet in me?

Draw aside fate’s veil, I pray, From this Adam shaped of clay; On Thy path precipitate For our coming we await.

54

No lament, no sigh I uttered; Naught avail laments and sighs; Best unspoken, the heart’s sorrow; There be few to sympathise.

In the shrine and in the temple There is love talk every where, Yet through all the world none knoweth This great secret that we share.

Here are things too fine for vision; As the sparks that upward soar Guard our world for a brief moment, And the next it is no more.

Coming by the path of seeing Thou didst past into my mind, But so sudden was Thy passing In that hour my eyes were blind.

They that tell the worth of jewels Would not heed my jewelled ring; Since the world will not regard it, Unto thee my gem I bring.

Lo, the goblet mind illuming That the West hath given me, All the sun’s aglow within it; Of the dawn no sign I see.

55

Tremulous as the moon light To our far abode We came; and no man knoweth How we trod this road.

Of our heart’s grief Thou spakest To the watchful spies; We came with lamentation Shameful of our sighs.

Unveil Thy hidden beauty! As the dawning sun All eyes to gaze upon thee Early we run.

Confirm our resolution With a stronger faith: We come unhorsed, unarmoured To this field of death.

What a far gaze may fashion Art Thou not aware? So fared we in Thy presence, On our lips a prayer.

56

Lord, who didst bring the stars to birth, Look down upon my scattered earth; The atom doth itself enfold; This boundless wilderness behold.

In solitude within my breast Immortal beauty lies at rest; Beneath this envelope of clay Regard the sun’s effulgent ray.

Tumultuous love Thou didst impart To this my frail and mortal heart; See now Thy conflagration roll Among the rushes of my soul.

Clothed in the robes of old disgrace Note how I labour to efface By hard endeavour every stain, And wash life’s garment white again.

My dust ascending in the air Seeks a new heaven to prepare; This atom, That is naught, and less, Would populate a wilderness!