Showing posts with label Poem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poem. Show all posts

Friday, April 20, 2018

Harry 'Breaker' Morant - At Last

When I am tired, and old and worn,
   And harass'd by regret;
When blame, reproach, and worldlings' scorn
   On every side are met;
When I have lived long years in vain
   And found Life's garlands rue,
Maybe I'll come back again -
   At last - at last - to you!

When all the joys and all the zest
   Of youthful years have fled,
Maybe that I shall leave the rest
   And turn to you instead;
For you, Dear Heart, would never spurn
   (With condemnation due!)
If, at the close of all, I turn
   Homeward - at last - to you! 

When other faces turn away,
   And lighter loves have passed;
When life is weary, cold, and gray -
   I may come back - at last!
When cares, remorse, regrets are rife -
   Too late to live anew -
In the sad twilight of my life
   I will come back - to you!

First published in The Bulletin, 5 April 1902.

Lord Byron - When a Man Hath No Freedom

When a man hath no freedom to fight for at home,
Let him combat for that of his neighbors;
Let him think of the glories of Greece and Rome,
And get knocked on his head for his labors.

To do good to mankind is the chivalrous plan,
And is always nobly requited;
Then battle for freedom wherever you can,
And, if not shot or hanged, you’ll get knighted.

Friday, March 23, 2018

Langston Hughes - The Negro Speaks of Rivers

I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

T. S. Eliot - The Waste Land


  "Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis
  vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent:
  Σίβυλλα τί θέλεις; respondebat illa: ἀποθανεῖν θέλω."

  For Ezra Pound
  il miglior fabbro







I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD

  April is the cruellest month, breeding
  Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
  Memory and desire, stirring
  Dull roots with spring rain.
  Winter kept us warm, covering
  Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
  A little life with dried tubers.
  Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
  With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
  And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,                            10
  And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
  Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
  And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,
  My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,
  And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
  Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
  In the mountains, there you feel free.
  I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

  What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
  Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,                                  20
  You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
  A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
  And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
  And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
  There is shadow under this red rock,
  (Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
  And I will show you something different from either
  Your shadow at morning striding behind you
  Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
  I will show you fear in a handful of dust.                              30
       Frisch weht der Wind
       Der Heimat zu
       Mein Irisch Kind,
       Wo weilest du?
  "You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;
  "They called me the hyacinth girl."
  —Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
  Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
  Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
  Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,                                    40
  Looking into the heart of light, the silence.
  Oed' und leer das Meer.

  Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante,
  Had a bad cold, nevertheless
  Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe,
  With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she,
  Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,
  (Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)
  Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,
  The lady of situations.                                                 50
  Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,
  And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,
  Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
  Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find
  The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.
  I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.
  Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone,
  Tell her I bring the horoscope myself:
  One must be so careful these days.

  Unreal City,                                                            60
  Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
  A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
  I had not thought death had undone so many.
  Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
  And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
  Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
  To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
  With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.
  There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying "Stetson!
  "You who were with me in the ships at Mylae!                            70
  "That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
  "Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
  "Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
  "Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,
  "Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!
  "You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable,—mon frère!"







II. A GAME OF CHESS

  The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne,
  Glowed on the marble, where the glass
  Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines
  From which a golden Cupidon peeped out                                  80
  (Another hid his eyes behind his wing)
  Doubled the flames of sevenbranched candelabra
  Reflecting light upon the table as
  The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it,
  From satin cases poured in rich profusion.
  In vials of ivory and coloured glass
  Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes,
  Unguent, powdered, or liquid—troubled, confused
  And drowned the sense in odours; stirred by the air
  That freshened from the window, these ascended                          90
  In fattening the prolonged candle-flames,
  Flung their smoke into the laquearia,
  Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling.
  Huge sea-wood fed with copper
  Burned green and orange, framed by the coloured stone,
  In which sad light a carvèd dolphin swam.
  Above the antique mantel was displayed
  As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene
  The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king
  So rudely forced; yet there the nightingale                             100
  Filled all the desert with inviolable voice
  And still she cried, and still the world pursues,
  "Jug Jug" to dirty ears.
  And other withered stumps of time
  Were told upon the walls; staring forms
  Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed.
  Footsteps shuffled on the stair.
  Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair
  Spread out in fiery points
  Glowed into words, then would be savagely still.                        110

  "My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
  "Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak.
  "What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
  "I never know what you are thinking. Think."

  I think we are in rats' alley
  Where the dead men lost their bones.

  "What is that noise?"
                               The wind under the door.
  "What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?"
                               Nothing again nothing.                     120
  "Do
  "You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember
  "Nothing?"

     I remember
  Those are pearls that were his eyes.
  "Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?"
  But
  O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag—
  It's so elegant
  So intelligent                                                          130
  "What shall I do now? What shall I do?"
  I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street
  "With my hair down, so. What shall we do tomorrow?
  "What shall we ever do?"
                                       The hot water at ten.
  And if it rains, a closed car at four.
  And we shall play a game of chess,
  Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door.

  When Lil's husband got demobbed, I said—
  I didn't mince my words, I said to her myself,                          140
  HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
  Now Albert's coming back, make yourself a bit smart.
  He'll want to know what you done with that money he gave you
  To get yourself some teeth. He did, I was there.
  You have them all out, Lil, and get a nice set,
  He said, I swear, I can't bear to look at you.
  And no more can't I, I said, and think of poor Albert,
  He's been in the army four years, he wants a good time,
  And if you don't give it him, there's others will, I said.
  Oh is there, she said. Something o' that, I said.                       150
  Then I'll know who to thank, she said, and give me a straight look.
  HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
  If you don't like it you can get on with it, I said.
  Others can pick and choose if you can't.
  But if Albert makes off, it won't be for lack of telling.
  You ought to be ashamed, I said, to look so antique.
  (And her only thirty-one.)
  I can't help it, she said, pulling a long face,
  It's them pills I took, to bring it off, she said.
  (She's had five already, and nearly died of young George.)              160
  The chemist said it would be all right, but I've never been the same.
  You are a proper fool, I said.
  Well, if Albert won't leave you alone, there it is, I said,
  What you get married for if you don't want children?
  HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
  Well, that Sunday Albert was home, they had a hot gammon,
  And they asked me in to dinner, to get the beauty of it hot—
  HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
  HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
  Goonight Bill. Goonight Lou. Goonight May. Goonight.                    170
  Ta ta. Goonight. Goonight.
  Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night.







III. THE FIRE SERMON

  The river's tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf
  Clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind
  Crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed.
  Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.
  The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers,
  Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends
  Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed.
  And their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors;               180
  Departed, have left no addresses.
  By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept . . .
  Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song,
  Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long.
  But at my back in a cold blast I hear
  The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear.
  A rat crept softly through the vegetation
  Dragging its slimy belly on the bank
  While I was fishing in the dull canal
  On a winter evening round behind the gashouse                           190
  Musing upon the king my brother's wreck
  And on the king my father's death before him.
  White bodies naked on the low damp ground
  And bones cast in a little low dry garret,
  Rattled by the rat's foot only, year to year.
  But at my back from time to time I hear
  The sound of horns and motors, which shall bring
  Sweeney to Mrs. Porter in the spring.
  O the moon shone bright on Mrs. Porter
  And on her daughter                                                     200
  They wash their feet in soda water
  Et O ces voix d'enfants, chantant dans la coupole!

  Twit twit twit
  Jug jug jug jug jug jug
  So rudely forc'd.
  Tereu

  Unreal City
  Under the brown fog of a winter noon
  Mr. Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant
  Unshaven, with a pocket full of currants                                210
  C.i.f. London: documents at sight,
  Asked me in demotic French
  To luncheon at the Cannon Street Hotel
  Followed by a weekend at the Metropole.

  At the violet hour, when the eyes and back
  Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits
  Like a taxi throbbing waiting,
  I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives,
  Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see
  At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives                       220
  Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea,
  The typist home at teatime, clears her breakfast, lights
  Her stove, and lays out food in tins.
  Out of the window perilously spread
  Her drying combinations touched by the sun's last rays,
  On the divan are piled (at night her bed)
  Stockings, slippers, camisoles, and stays.
  I Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dugs
  Perceived the scene, and foretold the rest—
  I too awaited the expected guest.                                       230
  He, the young man carbuncular, arrives,
  A small house agent's clerk, with one bold stare,
  One of the low on whom assurance sits
  As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.
  The time is now propitious, as he guesses,
  The meal is ended, she is bored and tired,
  Endeavours to engage her in caresses
  Which still are unreproved, if undesired.
  Flushed and decided, he assaults at once;
  Exploring hands encounter no defence;                                   240
  His vanity requires no response,
  And makes a welcome of indifference.
  (And I Tiresias have foresuffered all
  Enacted on this same divan or bed;
  I who have sat by Thebes below the wall
  And walked among the lowest of the dead.)
  Bestows one final patronising kiss,
  And gropes his way, finding the stairs unlit . . .

  She turns and looks a moment in the glass,
  Hardly aware of her departed lover;                                     250
  Her brain allows one half-formed thought to pass:
  "Well now that's done: and I'm glad it's over."
  When lovely woman stoops to folly and
  Paces about her room again, alone,
  She smooths her hair with automatic hand,
  And puts a record on the gramophone.

  "This music crept by me upon the waters"
  And along the Strand, up Queen Victoria Street.
  O City city, I can sometimes hear
  Beside a public bar in Lower Thames Street,                             260
  The pleasant whining of a mandoline
  And a clatter and a chatter from within
  Where fishmen lounge at noon: where the walls
  Of Magnus Martyr hold
  Inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold.

       The river sweats
       Oil and tar
       The barges drift
       With the turning tide
       Red sails                                                          270
       Wide
       To leeward, swing on the heavy spar.
       The barges wash
       Drifting logs
       Down Greenwich reach
       Past the Isle of Dogs.
            Weialala leia
            Wallala leialala
       Elizabeth and Leicester
       Beating oars                                                       280
       The stern was formed
       A gilded shell
       Red and gold
       The brisk swell
       Rippled both shores
       Southwest wind
       Carried down stream
       The peal of bells
       White towers
            Weialala leia                                                 290
            Wallala leialala

  "Trams and dusty trees.
  Highbury bore me. Richmond and Kew
  Undid me. By Richmond I raised my knees
  Supine on the floor of a narrow canoe."

  "My feet are at Moorgate, and my heart
  Under my feet. After the event
  He wept. He promised 'a new start'.
  I made no comment. What should I resent?"
  "On Margate Sands.                                                      300
  I can connect
  Nothing with nothing.
  The broken fingernails of dirty hands.
  My people humble people who expect
  Nothing."
       la la

  To Carthage then I came

  Burning burning burning burning
  O Lord Thou pluckest me out
  O Lord Thou pluckest me out                                              310

  







IV. DEATH BY WATER

  Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
  Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell
  And the profit and loss.
                                           A current under sea
  Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
  He passed the stages of his age and youth
  Entering the whirlpool.
                                         Gentile or Jew
  O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,                          320
  Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.







V. WHAT THE THUNDER SAID

  After the torchlight red on sweaty faces
  After the frosty silence in the gardens
  After the agony in stony places
  The shouting and the crying
  Prison and palace and reverberation
  Of thunder of spring over distant mountains
  He who was living is now dead
  We who were living are now dying
  With a little patience                                                  330

  Here is no water but only rock
  Rock and no water and the sandy road
  The road winding above among the mountains
  Which are mountains of rock without water
  If there were water we should stop and drink
  Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think
  Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand
  If there were only water amongst the rock
  Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit
  Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit                              340
  There is not even silence in the mountains
  But dry sterile thunder without rain
  There is not even solitude in the mountains
  But red sullen faces sneer and snarl
  From doors of mudcracked houses
  If there were water
  And no rock
  If there were rock
  And also water
  And water                                                               350
  A spring
  A pool among the rock
  If there were the sound of water only
  Not the cicada
  And dry grass singing
  But sound of water over a rock
  Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees
  Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop
  But there is no water

  Who is the third who walks always beside you?                          360
  When I count, there are only you and I together
  But when I look ahead up the white road
  There is always another one walking beside you
  Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded
  I do not know whether a man or a woman
  —But who is that on the other side of you?

  What is that sound high in the air
  Murmur of maternal lamentation
  Who are those hooded hordes swarming
  Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth                         370
  Ringed by the flat horizon only
  What is the city over the mountains
  Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air
  Falling towers
  Jerusalem Athens Alexandria
  Vienna London
  Unreal

  A woman drew her long black hair out tight
  And fiddled whisper music on those strings
  And bats with baby faces in the violet light                            380
  Whistled, and beat their wings
  And crawled head downward down a blackened wall
  And upside down in air were towers
  Tolling reminiscent bells, that kept the hours
  And voices singing out of empty cisterns and exhausted wells.

  In this decayed hole among the mountains
  In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
  Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel
  There is the empty chapel, only the wind's home.
  It has no windows, and the door swings,                                 390
  Dry bones can harm no one.
  Only a cock stood on the rooftree
  Co co rico co co rico
  In a flash of lightning. Then a damp gust
  Bringing rain

  Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves
  Waited for rain, while the black clouds
  Gathered far distant, over Himavant.
  The jungle crouched, humped in silence.
  Then spoke the thunder                                                  400
  DA
  Datta: what have we given?
  My friend, blood shaking my heart
  The awful daring of a moment's surrender
  Which an age of prudence can never retract
  By this, and this only, we have existed
  Which is not to be found in our obituaries
  Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider
  Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor
  In our empty rooms                                                     410
  DA
  Dayadhvam: I have heard the key
  Turn in the door once and turn once only
  We think of the key, each in his prison
  Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison
  Only at nightfall, aetherial rumours
  Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus
  DA
  Damyata: The boat responded
  Gaily, to the hand expert with sail and oar                            420
  The sea was calm, your heart would have responded
  Gaily, when invited, beating obedient
  To controlling hands

                                       I sat upon the shore
  Fishing, with the arid plain behind me
  Shall I at least set my lands in order?
  London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down
  Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina
  Quando fiam ceu chelidon— O swallow swallow
  Le Prince d'Aquitaine à la tour abolie                                 430
  These fragments I have shored against my ruins
  Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo's mad againe.
  Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.
                             Shantih    shantih    shantih

  Line 416 aetherial] aethereal
  Line 429 ceu] uti— Editor



NOTES ON "THE WASTE LAND"

Not only the title, but the plan and a good deal of the incidental
symbolism of the poem were suggested by Miss Jessie L. Weston's book on
the Grail legend: From Ritual to Romance (Macmillan).<1> Indeed, so
deeply am I indebted, Miss Weston's book will elucidate the difficulties
of the poem much better than my notes can do; and I recommend it (apart
from the great interest of the book itself) to any who think such
elucidation of the poem worth the trouble. To another work of
anthropology I am indebted in general, one which has influenced our
generation profoundly; I mean The Golden Bough; I have used especially
the two volumes Adonis, Attis, Osiris. Anyone who is acquainted with
these works will immediately recognise in the poem certain references to
vegetation ceremonies.

  <1> Macmillan] Cambridge.

  I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD

  Line 20.  Cf.  Ezekiel 2:1.

  23.  Cf.  Ecclesiastes 12:5.

  31.  V.  Tristan und Isolde, i, verses 5-8.

  42.  Id.  iii, verse 24.

  46.  I am not familiar with the exact constitution of the Tarot pack
  of cards, from which I have obviously departed to suit my own convenience.
  The Hanged Man, a member of the traditional pack, fits my purpose
  in two ways:  because he is associated in my mind with the Hanged God
  of Frazer, and because I associate him with the hooded figure in
  the passage of the disciples to Emmaus in Part V. The Phoenician Sailor
  and the Merchant appear later; also the "crowds of people," and
  Death by Water is executed in Part IV.  The Man with Three Staves
  (an authentic member of the Tarot pack) I associate, quite arbitrarily,
  with the Fisher King himself.

  60.  Cf.  Baudelaire:

       "Fourmillante cité, cité; pleine de rêves,
       Où le spectre en plein jour raccroche le passant."

  63.  Cf.  Inferno, iii.  55-7.

                                     "si lunga tratta
       di gente, ch'io non avrei mai creduto
       che morte tanta n'avesse disfatta."

  64.  Cf.  Inferno, iv.  25-7:

       "Quivi, secondo che per ascoltare,
       "non avea pianto, ma' che di sospiri,
       "che l'aura eterna facevan tremare."

  68.  A phenomenon which I have often noticed.

  74.  Cf.  the Dirge in Webster's White Devil.

  76.  V. Baudelaire, Preface to Fleurs du Mal.

  II.  A GAME OF CHESS

  77.  Cf.  Antony and Cleopatra, II. ii., l. 190.

  92.  Laquearia.  V.  Aeneid, I. 726:

       dependent lychni laquearibus aureis
       incensi, et noctem flammis funalia vincunt.

  98.  Sylvan scene.  V. Milton, Paradise Lost, iv.  140.

  99.  V. Ovid, Metamorphoses, vi, Philomela.

  100.  Cf.  Part III, l. 204.

  115.  Cf.  Part III, l. 195.

  118.  Cf.  Webster:  "Is the wind in that door still?"

  126.  Cf.  Part I, l. 37, 48.

  138.  Cf.  the game of chess in Middleton's Women beware Women.

  III.  THE FIRE SERMON

  176.  V. Spenser, Prothalamion.

  192.  Cf.  The Tempest, I.  ii.

  196.  Cf.  Marvell, To His Coy Mistress.

  197.  Cf.  Day, Parliament of Bees:

       "When of the sudden, listening, you shall hear,
       "A noise of horns and hunting, which shall bring
       "Actaeon to Diana in the spring,
       "Where all shall see her naked skin . . ."

  199.  I do not know the origin of the ballad from which these lines
  are taken:  it was reported to me from Sydney, Australia.

  202.  V. Verlaine, Parsifal.

  210.  The currants were quoted at a price "carriage and insurance
  free to London"; and the Bill of Lading etc. were to be handed
  to the buyer upon payment of the sight draft.

  Notes 196 and 197 were transposed in this and the Hogarth Press edition,
  but have been corrected here.

  210.  "Carriage and insurance free"] "cost, insurance and freight"-Editor.

  218.  Tiresias, although a mere spectator and not indeed a "character,"
  is yet the most important personage in the poem, uniting all the rest.
  Just as the one-eyed merchant, seller of currants, melts into
  the Phoenician Sailor, and the latter is not wholly distinct
  from Ferdinand Prince of Naples, so all the women are one woman,
  and the two sexes meet in Tiresias.  What Tiresias sees, in fact,
  is the substance of the poem.  The whole passage from Ovid is
  of great anthropological interest:

       '. . . Cum Iunone iocos et maior vestra profecto est
       Quam, quae contingit maribus,' dixisse, 'voluptas.'
       Illa negat; placuit quae sit sententia docti
       Quaerere Tiresiae: venus huic erat utraque nota.
       Nam duo magnorum viridi coeuntia silva
       Corpora serpentum baculi violaverat ictu
       Deque viro factus, mirabile, femina septem
       Egerat autumnos; octavo rursus eosdem
       Vidit et 'est vestrae si tanta potentia plagae,'
       Dixit 'ut auctoris sortem in contraria mutet,
       Nunc quoque vos feriam!' percussis anguibus isdem
       Forma prior rediit genetivaque venit imago.
       Arbiter hic igitur sumptus de lite iocosa
       Dicta Iovis firmat; gravius Saturnia iusto
       Nec pro materia fertur doluisse suique
       Iudicis aeterna damnavit lumina nocte,
       At pater omnipotens (neque enim licet inrita cuiquam
       Facta dei fecisse deo) pro lumine adempto
       Scire futura dedit poenamque levavit honore.

  221.  This may not appear as exact as Sappho's lines, but I had in mind
  the "longshore" or "dory" fisherman, who returns at nightfall.

  253.  V. Goldsmith, the song in The Vicar of Wakefield.

  257.  V.  The Tempest, as above.

  264.  The interior of St. Magnus Martyr is to my mind one of
  the finest among Wren's interiors.  See The Proposed Demolition
  of Nineteen City Churches (P. S. King & Son, Ltd.).

  266.  The Song of the (three) Thames-daughters begins here.
  From line 292 to 306 inclusive they speak in turn.
  V.  Götterdämmerung, III.  i:  the Rhine-daughters.

  279.  V. Froude, Elizabeth, Vol.  I, ch.  iv, letter of De Quadra
  to Philip of Spain:

  "In the afternoon we were in a barge, watching the games on the river.
  (The queen) was alone with Lord Robert and myself on the poop,
  when they began to talk nonsense, and went so far that Lord Robert
  at last said, as I was on the spot there was no reason why they
  should not be married if the queen pleased."

  293.  Cf.  Purgatorio, v.  133:

       "Ricorditi di me, che son la Pia;
       Siena mi fe', disfecemi Maremma."

  307.  V. St. Augustine's Confessions:  "to Carthage then I came,
  where a cauldron of unholy loves sang all about mine ears."

  308.  The complete text of the Buddha's Fire Sermon (which corresponds
  in importance to the Sermon on the Mount) from which these words are taken,
  will be found translated in the late Henry Clarke Warren's Buddhism
  in Translation (Harvard Oriental Series). Mr. Warren was one
  of the great pioneers of Buddhist studies in the Occident.

  309.  From St. Augustine's Confessions again.  The collocation
  of these two representatives of eastern and western asceticism,
  as the culmination of this part of the poem, is not an accident.

  V. WHAT THE THUNDER SAID

  In the first part of Part V three themes are employed:
  the journey to Emmaus, the approach to the Chapel Perilous
  (see Miss Weston's book) and the present decay of eastern Europe.

  357.  This is Turdus aonalaschkae pallasii, the hermit-thrush
  which I have heard in Quebec County.  Chapman says (Handbook of
  Birds of Eastern North America) "it is most at home in secluded
  woodland and thickety retreats. . . . Its notes are not remarkable
  for variety or volume, but in purity and sweetness of tone and
  exquisite modulation they are unequalled."  Its "water-dripping song"
  is justly celebrated.

  360.  The following lines were stimulated by the account of one
  of the Antarctic expeditions (I forget which, but I think one
  of Shackleton's): it was related that the party of explorers,
  at the extremity of their strength, had the constant delusion
  that there was one more member than could actually be counted.

  367-77. Cf.  Hermann Hesse, Blick ins Chaos:

  "Schon ist halb Europa, schon ist zumindest der halbe Osten Europas auf dem
  Wege zum Chaos, fährt betrunken im heiligem Wahn am Abgrund entlang
  und singt dazu, singt betrunken und hymnisch wie Dmitri Karamasoff sang.
  Ueber diese Lieder lacht der Bürger beleidigt, der Heilige
  und Seher hört sie mit Tränen."

  402.  "Datta, dayadhvam, damyata" (Give, sympathize,
  control). The fable of the meaning of the Thunder is found
  in the Brihadaranyaka—Upanishad, 5, 1.  A translation is found
  in Deussen's Sechzig Upanishads des Veda, p.  489.

  408.  Cf.  Webster, The White Devil, v.  vi:

                                                      ". . . they'll remarry
     Ere the worm pierce your winding-sheet, ere the spider
     Make a thin curtain for your epitaphs."

  412.  Cf.  Inferno, xxxiii.  46:

            "ed io sentii chiavar l'uscio di sotto
            all'orribile torre."

  Also F. H. Bradley, Appearance and Reality, p.  346:

  "My external sensations are no less private to myself than are my
  thoughts or my feelings.  In either case my experience falls within
  my own circle, a circle closed on the outside; and, with all its
  elements alike, every sphere is opaque to the others which surround
  it. . . . In brief, regarded as an existence which appears in a soul,
  the whole world for each is peculiar and private to that soul."

  425.  V. Weston, From Ritual to Romance; chapter on the Fisher King.

  428.  V.  Purgatorio, xxvi.  148.

            "'Ara vos prec per aquella valor
             'que vos guida al som de l'escalina,
             'sovegna vos a temps de ma dolor.'
              Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina."

  429.  V.  Pervigilium Veneris.  Cf.  Philomela in Parts II and III.

  430.  V. Gerard de Nerval, Sonnet El Desdichado.

  432.  V. Kyd's Spanish Tragedy.

  434.  Shantih.  Repeated as here, a formal ending to an Upanishad.
  'The Peace which passeth understanding' is a feeble translation
  of the content of this word.

Friday, December 25, 2015

नागार्जुन Nagarjun - प्रतिबद्ध हूँ संबद्ध हूँ आबद्ध हूँ Pratibaddh hoon, Sambaddh hoon, Aabaddh hoon



प्रतिबद्ध हूँ संबद्ध हूँ आबद्ध हूँ


प्रतिबद्ध हूँ
संबद्ध हूँ
आबद्ध हूँ

प्रतिबद्ध हूँ, जी हाँ, प्रतिबद्ध हूँ –
बहुजन समाज की अनुपल प्रगति के निमित्त –
संकुचित ‘स्व’ की आपाधापी के निषेधार्थ...
अविवेकी भीड़ की ‘भेड़या-धसान’ के खिलाफ़…
अंध-बधिर ‘व्यक्तियों’ को सही राह बतलाने के लिए...
अपने आप को भी ‘व्यामोह’ से बारंबार उबारने की खातिर...
प्रतिबद्ध हूँ, जी हाँ, शतधा प्रतिबद्ध हूँ!

संबद्ध हूँ, जी हाँ, संबद्ध हूँ –
सचर-अचर सृष्टि से…
शीत से, ताप से, धूप से, ओस से, हिमपात से…
राग से, द्वेष से, क्रोध से, घृणा से, हर्ष से, शोक से, उमंग से, आक्रोश से...
निश्चय-अनिश्चय से, संशय-भ्रम से, क्रम से, व्यतिक्रम से…
निष्ठा-अनिष्ठा से, आस्था-अनास्था से, संकल्प-विकल्प से…
जीवन से, मृत्यु से, नाश-निर्माण से, शाप-वरदान से...
उत्थान से, पतन से, प्रकाश से, तिमिर से...
दंभ से, मान से, अणु से, महान से…
लघु-लघुतर-लघुतम से, महा-महाविशाल से…
पल-अनुपल से, काल-महाकाल से…
पृथ्वी-पाताल से, ग्रह-उपग्रह से, निहरिका-जल से...
रिक्त से, शून्य से, व्याप्ति-अव्याप्ति-महाव्याप्ति से…
अथ से, इति से, अस्ति से, नास्ति से…
सबसे और किसी से नहीं
और जाने किस-किस से...
संबद्ध हूँं, जी हॉँ, शतदा संबद्ध हूँ।
रूप-रस-गंध और स्पर्श से, शब्द से...
नाद से, ध्वनि से, स्वर से, इंगित-आकृति से...
सच से, झूठ से, दोनों की मिलावट से...
विधि से, निषेध से, पुण्य से, पाप से...
उज्जवल से, मलिन से, लाभ से, हानि से...
गति से, अगति से, प्रगति से, दुर्गति से…
यश से, कलंक से, नाम-दुर्नाम से…
संबद्ध हूँं, जी हॉँ, शतदा संबद्ध हूँ!

आबद्ध हूँ, जी हाँ आबद्ध हूँ –
स्वजन-परिजन के प्यार की डोर में…
प्रियजन के पलकों की कोर में…
सपनीली रातों के भोर में…
बहुरूपा कल्पना रानी के आलिंगन-पाश में…
तीसरी-चौथी पीढ़ियों के दंतुरित शिशु-सुलभ हास में…
लाख-लाख मुखड़ों के तरुण हुलास में…
आबद्ध हूँ, जी हाँ शतधा आबद्ध हूँ!

Sunday, October 11, 2015

فیض احمد فیض फ़ैज़ अहमद फ़ैज़ Faiz Ahmed Faiz - صبح آزادی सुबह-ए-आज़ादी Subh-e-Azadi

یہ داغ داغ اُجالا، یہ شب گزیدہ سحر
وہ انتظار تھا جس کا، یہ وہ سحر تو نہیں
یہ وہ سحر تو نہیں جس کی آرزو لے کر
چلے تھے یار کہ مل جائے گی کہیں نہ کہیں
فلک کے دشت میں تاروں کی آخری منزل
کہیں تو ہوگا شبِ سست موج کا ساحل
کہیں تو جاکے رکے گا سفینۂ غمِ دل

جواں لہو کی پراسرار شاہراہوں سے
چلے جو یار تو دامن پہ کتنے ہاتھ پڑے
دیارِ حسن کی بے صبر خواب گاہوں سے
پکارتی رہیں باہیں، بدن بلاتے رہے
بہت عزیز تھی لیکن رخِ سحر کی لگن
بہت قریں تھا حسینانِ نور کا دامن
سبک سبک تھی تمنا، دبی دبی تھی تھکن

سنا ہے ہو بھی چکا ہے فراقِ ظلمت و نور
سنا ہے ہو بھی چکا ہے وصالِ منزل و گام
بدل چکا ہے بہت اہلِ درد کا دستور
نشاطِ وصل حلال و عذابِ ہجر حرام
جگر کی آگ، نظر کی امنگ، دل کی جلن
کسی پہ چارۂ ہجراں کا کچھ اثر ہی نہیں
کہاں سے آئی نگارِ صبا، کدھر کو گئی
ابھی چراغِ سرِ رہ کو کچھ خبر ہی نہیں

ابھی گرانئ شب میں کمی نہیں آئی
نجاتِ دیدہ و دل کی گھڑی نہیں آئی
چلے چلو کہ وہ منزل ابھی نہیں آئی

--

ये दाग़ दाग़ उजाला, ये शबगज़ीदा सहर
वो इन्तज़ार था जिस का, ये वो सहर तो नहीं
ये वो सहर तो नहीं जिस की आरज़ू लेकर
चले थे यार कि मिल जायेगी कहीं न कहीं
फ़लक के दश्त में तारों की आख़री मंज़िल
कहीं तो होगा शब-ए-सुस्त मौज का साहिल
कहीं तो जा के रुकेगा सफ़ीना-ए-ग़म-ए-दिल

जवाँ लहू की पुर-असरार शाहराहों से
चले जो यार तो दामन पे कितने हाथ पड़े
दयार-ए-हुस्न की बे-सब्र ख़्वाब-गाहों से
पुकारती रहीं बाहें, बदन बुलाते रहे
बहुत अज़ीज़ थी लेकिन रुख़-ए-सहर की लगन
बहुत क़रीं था हसीनान-ए-नूर का दामन
सुबुक सुबुक थी तमन्ना, दबी दबी थी थकन

सुना है हो भी चुका है फ़िरक़-ए-ज़ुल्मत-ए-नूर
सुना है हो भी चुका है विसाल-ए-मंज़िल-ओ-गाम
बदल चुका है बहुत अहल-ए-दर्द का दस्तूर
निशात-ए-वस्ल हलाल-ओ-अज़ाब-ए-हिज्र-ए-हराम
जिगर की आग, नज़र की उमंग, दिल की जलन
किसी पे चारा-ए-हिज्राँ का कुछ असर ही नहीं
कहाँ से आई निगार-ए-सबा, किधर को गई
अभी चिराग़-ए-सर-ए-रह को कुछ ख़बर ही नहीं
अभी गरानि-ए-शब में कमी नहीं आई
नजात-ए-दीद-ओ-दिल की घड़ी नहीं आई
चले चलो कि वो मंज़िल अभी नहीं आई

--

Ye daagh daagh ujaalaa, ye shab-gazeedah sahar,Vo intizaar thaa jis-kaa, ye vo sahar to nahiiN.
Ye vo sahar to nahiiN jis-kii aarzoo lekar
Chale the yaar ke mil-ja`egi kahiiN na kahiN
Falak ke dasht meN taroN kii aakhiri manzil,
KahiN to hogaa shab-e sust mauj kaa sahil,
KahiN to jaake rukegaa safiina-e-gham-e-dil.
JawaaN lahu kii pur-asraar shaahrahoN se
Chale jo yaar to daaman pe kitne hath paRe;
Dayaar-e-husn kii be-sabr khwaab-gaahoN se
Pukaarti-rahiiN baahen, badan bulaate-rahe;
Bahut ‘aziiz thii lekin rukh-e-sahar ki lagan,
Bahut qariin thaa hasiinaN-e-noor kaa daaman, ,
Subuk subuk thii tamannaa, dabii dabii thii thakan.
Sunaa hai ho bhii chukaa hai firaaq-e-zulmat-o-noor,
Sunaa hai ho bhii chukaa hai visaal-e-manzil-o-gaam;
Badal-chukaa hai bahut ahl-e-dard kaa dastoor,
Nishaat-e-vasl halaal o ‘azab-e-hijr haraam.
Jigar kii aag, nazar kii umang, dil kii jalan,
kisii pe chaara-e-hijraaN kaa kuchh asar hii nahiiN.
KahaaN se aa’ii nigaar-e-sabaa, kidhar ko ga’ii?
Abhii charaagh-e-sar-e-rah ko kuchh khabar hii nahiiN;
Abhii graanii-e-shab meN kamii nahiiN aa’ii,
Najaat-e-diid-o-dil ki ghaRii nahiiN aa’ii;
Chale-chalo ke vo manjil abhii nahiiN aa’ii

--

शब / shab – night
गज़ीदा / gazeedah – stung/bitten
सहर / sahar – dawn/morning
आरज़ू / aarzoo – yearning/desire/wish/longing
फ़लक / falak – sky/heaven/fortune/fate
दश्त / dasht – Desert, Hands, Jungle, Wilderness
सुस्त / sust – Dull, Frail, Laggard, Languid, Late, Lazy, Lax, Loose, Otiose, Slow, Tardy
मौज् / mauj – wave/surge/enjoyment/ecstasy/caprice/plenty
साहिल / Saahil – Beach, River-Side, Shore
सफ़िना / Safina – Boat
पुर / pur – Full, Complete, Laden
असरार / asrar – secrets
शाह-राह / shaah-raah – highway
दामन / daaman – Skirt, Foot Of A Mountain, Lap
दयार / Dayaar – place, residence
क़रीं / quariin – near, close
नूर / noor – light
सुबुक / subuk – Agile, Delicate, Embarrassed, Frivolous, Futile, Light, Trivial
तमन्ना / Tamanna – Desire, wish, yearning
थकन / Thakan – fatigue
फ़िराक़ / Firaaq – Separation, Anxiety, Absence, Distance
ज़ुल्मत / Zulmat – Darkness, Obscurity
विसाल / Visaal – union, meeting
गाम / Gaam – step
अहल / ahl – people
दस्तूर / Dastoor – Custom, Law, Manner, Rule, Usage
निशात / Enthusiasm, Happiness, Joy
वस्ल / Vasl – Meeting, Union
हलाल / Halaal – Admissible, Lawful, Legal, Permitted
अज़ाब / azaab – Agony, Anguish, Botheration, Curse, Difficulty, Misfortune, Pain, Punishment, Sea, Sorrow, Torment
हिज्र / Hijr – Separation, Absence From One’s Country
हराम / haraam – Adultery, Forbidden, Unlawful, Wicked, Wrong
जिगर / Jigar – Liver, Heart, Soul, Mind
उमंग / Umang – Enthusiasm, Urge
चारा / Chaarah – Aid, Cure, Help, Means, Redress, Resource, Remedy
निगार / nigaar – Painting, Picture, Sweetheart, Beloved, Embroidery
सबा / sabaa – Breeze, Gentle Cool Breeze, Wind
सर-ए-राह / sar-e raah – on the road
गरां / Garaan – Heavy, Difficult
नजात / Najaat – Freedom (From), Salvation
दीद / Diid – Seeing, Sight

--

These tarnished rays, this night-smudged light --
This is not that Dawn for which, ravished with freedom,
we had set out in sheer longing,
so sure that somewhere in its desert the sky harbored
a final haven for the stars, and we would find it.
We had no doubt that night's vagrant wave would stray
towards the shore,
that the heart rocked with sorrow would at last reach its port.
Friends, our blood shaped its own mysterious roads.
When hands tugged at our sleeves, enticing us to stay,
and from wondrous chambers Sirens cried out
with their beguiling arms, with their bare bodies,
our eyes remained fixed on that beckoning Dawn,
forever vivid in her muslins of transparent light.
Our blood was young -- what could hold us back?
Now listen to the terrible rampant lie:
Light has forever been severed from the Dark;
our feet, it is heard, are now one with their goal.
See our leaders polish their manner clean of our suffering:
Indeed, we must confess only to bliss;
we must surrender any utterance for the Beloved -- all yearning
is outlawed.
But the heart, the eye, the yet deeper heart --
Still ablaze for the Beloved, their turmoil shines.
In the lantern by the road the flame is stalled for news:
Did the morning breeze ever come? Where has it gone?
Night weighs us down, it still weighs us down.
Friends, come away from this false light. Come, we must
search for that promised Dawn.

--

This stained tainted light, this night bitten dawn,
That we were waiting for, this is not that morning.
This is not that morning, in whose yearning,
We had set out full of hope that we will surely find,
In the wilderness of the sky, the final destination of stars,
Somewhere the night-weary waves must find their shore,
Some place must be the final halt for the boat of our heart’s sorrows.
Full of youth’s passion driven secrets, on the majestic way,
When we set out, many hands tugged at us.
From the adobes of beauties and their impatient dreamlands,
Arms kept reaching, bodies kept calling.
But extremely dear to us was the desire to see the morning.
Very close to us was its beautiful drape of light.
Lofty was our yearning, subdued was our fatigue.
Have heard that the light has already vanquished the darkness.
Have heard that our steps have already met their destination.
Much changed are the customs of people’s suffering –
Joy of union is acceptable but the anguish for separation is banished.
The soul’s fire, the eye’s longing, and the heart’s burning –
On none of them, there is any relief from this remedy of separation.
From where the beloved breeze came, and where did it go?
The lamp by the roadside is still burning unaware.
Yet the oppression of the darkness has not been alleviated,
The moment of salvation for our sights and hearts has not yet arrived.
Keep marching, for that destination has not yet arrived.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

कैफ़ी आज़मी, गुलाम मोहम्मद, नौशाद, लता मंगेशकर - पाकीज़ा - चलते चलते यूँ ही कोई मिल गया था


चलते चलते यूँ ही कोई मिल गया था

चलते चलते,
यूँही कोई मिल गया था,
सरे राह चलते चलते
वही थम के रह गयी हैं,
मेरी रात ढलते ढलते

जो कही गयी ना मुझ से,
वो ज़माना कह रहा हैं
के फ़साना बन गयी है,
मेरी बात चलते चलते

शब-ए-इंतज़ार आखिर,
कभी होगी मुक्तसर भी
ये चिराग बुझ रहे है,
मेरे साथ जलते जलते

Monday, November 26, 2012

Anna Akhmatova - Requiem

1935-1940
Not under foreign skies protection
Or saving wings of alien birth –
I was then there – with whole my nation –
There, where my nation, alas! was.
1961 

INSTEAD OF A PREFACE
In the awful days of the Yezhovschina I passed seventeen months in the outer waiting line of the prison visitors in Leningrad. Once, somebody ‘identified’ me there. Then a woman, standing behind me in the line, which, of course, never heard my name, waked up from the torpor, typical for us all there, and asked me, whispering into my ear (all spoke only in a whisper there):
“And can you describe this?”
And I answered:
“Yes, I can.”
Then the weak similarity of a smile glided over that, what had once been her face.
April 1, 1957; Leningrad 

DEDICATION
The high crags decline before this woe,
The great river does not flow ahead,
But they’re strong – the locks of a jail, stone,
And behind them – the cells, dark and low,
And the deadly pine is spread.
For some one, somewhere, a fresh wind blows,
For some one, somewhere, wakes up a dawn –
We don’t know, we’re the same here always,
We just hear the key’s squalls, morose,
And the sentry’s heavy step alone;
Got up early, as for Mass by Easter,
Walked the empty capital along
To create the half-dead peoples’ throng.
The sun downed, the Neva got mister,
But our hope sang afar its song.
There’s a sentence… In a trice tears flow…
Now separated, cut from us,
As if they’d pulled out her heart and thrown
Or pushed down her on a street stone –
But she goes… Reels…  Alone at once.
Where are now friends unwilling those,
Those friends of my two years, brute?
What they see in the Siberian snows,
In a circle of the moon, exposed?
To them I send my farewell salute.

PROLOGUE
In this time, just a dead could half-manage
A weak smile – with the peaceful state glad.
And, like some heavy, needless appendage,
Mid its prisons swung gray Leningrad.
And, when mad from the tortures’ succession,
Marched the army of those, who’d been doomed,
Sang the engines the last separation
With their whistles through smoking gloom,
And the deathly stars hanged our heads over
And our Russia writhed under the boots –
With the blood of the guiltless full-covered –
And the wheels on Black Maries’ black routes.
1
You were taken away at dawn’s mildness.
I convoyed you, as my dead-born child,
Children cried in the room’s half-grey darkness,
And the lamp by the icon lost light. 
On your lips dwells the icon kiss’s cold
On your brow – the cold sweet … Don’t forget!
Like a wife of the rebel of old
On the Red Square, I’ll wail without end.
2
The quiet Don bears quiet flood,
The crescent enters in a hut.
He enters with a cap on head,
He sees a woman like a shade.
This woman’s absolutely ill,
This woman’s absolutely single.
Her man is dead, son – in a jail,
Oh, pray for me – a poor female!    
3
No, ‘tis not I, ‘tis someone’s in a suffer –
I was ne’er able to endure such pain.
Let all, that was, be with a black cloth muffled,
And let the lanterns be got out ... and reign
                                            just Night.
4
You should have seen, girl with some mocking manner,
Of all your friends the most beloved pet,
The whole Tsar Village’s a sinner, gayest ever –
What should be later to your years sent.
How, with a parcel, by The Crosses, here,
You stand in line with the ‘Three Hundredth’ brand
And, with your hot from bitterness a tear,
Burn through the ice of the New Year, dread.
The prison’s poplar’s bowing with its brow,
No sound’s heard – But how many, there,
The guiltless ones are loosing their lives now…      
  
5
I’ve cried for seventeen long months,
I’ve called you for your home,
I fell at hangmen’ feet – not once,
My womb and hell you’re from.
All has been mixed up for all times,
And now I can’t define
Who is a beast or man, at last,
And when they’ll kill my son.
There’re left just flowers under dust,
The censer’s squall, the traces, cast
Into the empty mar…
And looks strait into my red eyes
And threads with death, that’s coming fast,
The immense blazing star.  
6
The light weeks fly faster here,
What has happened I don’t know,
How, into your prison, stone,
Did white nights look, my son, dear?
How do they stare at you, else,
With their hot eye of a falcon,
Speak of the high cross, you hang on,
Of the slow coming death?
7
THE SENTENCE
The word, like a heavy stone,
Fell on my still living breast.
I was ready. I didn’t moan.
I will try to do my best.
I have much to do my own:
To forget this endless pain,
Force this soul to be stone,
Force this flesh to live again.  
Just if not … The rustle of summer
Feasts behind my window sell.
Long before I’ve seen in slumber
This clear day and empty cell.
8
TO DEATH
You’ll come in any case – why not right now, therefore?
I wait for you – my strain is highest.
I have doused the light and left opened the door
For you, so simple and so wondrous.
Please, just take any sight, which you prefer to have:
Thrust in – in the gun shells’ disguises,
Or crawl in with a knife, as an experienced knave,
Or poison me with smoking typhus,
Or quote the fairy tale, grown in the mind of yours
And known to each man to sickness,
In which I’d see, at last, the blue of the hats’ tops,
And the house-manager, ‘still fearless’.
It’s all the same to me. The cold Yenisei lies
In the dense mist, the Northern Star – in brightness,
And a blue shine of the beloved eyes
Is covered by the last fear-darkness.
9
Already madness, with its wing,
Covers a half of my heart, restless,
Gives me the flaming wine to drink
And draws into the vale of blackness.
I understand that just to it
My victory has to be given,
Hearing the ravings of my fit,
Now fitting to the stranger’s living.
And nothing of my own past
It’ll let me take with self from here
(No matter in what pleas I thrust
Or how often they appear):
Not awful eyes of my dear son –
The endless suffering and patience –
Not that black day when thunder gunned,
Not that jail’s hour of visitation,
Not that sweet coolness of his hands,
Not that lime’s shade in agitation,         
Not that light sound from distant lands –
Words of the final consolations.
10
CRUCIFIXION
                              Don’t weep for me, Mother,
                              seeing me in a grave.
I
The angels’ choir sang fame for the great hour,
And skies were melted in the fire’s rave.
He said to God, “Why did you left me, Father?”
And to his Mother, “Don’t weep o’er my grave…”
II
Magdalena writhed and sobbed in torments,
The best pupil turned into a stone,
But none dared – even for a moment –
To sight Mother, silent and alone.

EPILOGUE
I
I’ve known how, at once, shrink back the faces,
How fear peeps up from under the eyelids,
How suffering creates the scriptural pages 
On the pale cheeks its cruel reigning midst,
How the shining raven or fair ringlet
At once is covered by the silver dust,
And a smile slackens on the lips, obedient,
And deathly fear in the dry snicker rustles.
And not just for myself I pray to Lord,
But for them all, who stood in that line, hardest,
In a summer heat and in a winter cold,
Under the wall, so red and so sightless.
II
Again a memorial hour is near,
I can now see you and feel you and hear:
And her, who’d been led to the air in a fit,
And her – who no more touches earth with her feet.
And her – having tossed with her beautiful head –
She says, “I come here as to my homestead.”
I wish all of them with their names to be called;
But how can I do that? I have not the roll.
The wide common cover I’ve wov’n for their lot –
From many a word, that from them I have caught.
Those words I’ll remember as long as I live,
I’d not forget them in a new awe or grief.
And if will be stopped my long-suffering mouth –
Through which always shout our people’s a mass –
Let them pray for me, like for them I had prayed,
Before my remembrance day, quiet and sad.
And if once, whenever in my native land,
They’d think of the raising up my monument,
I give my permission for such good a feast,
But with one condition – they have to place it
Not near the sea, where I once have been born –
All my warm connections with it had been torn,
Not in the tsar’s garden near that tree-stump, blessed,
Where I am looked for by the doleful shade,  
But here, where three hundred long hours I stood for
And where was not opened for me the hard door.
Since e’en in the blessed death, I shouldn’t forget 
The deafening roar of Black Maries’ black band,
I shouldn’t forget how flapped that hateful door,
And wailed the old woman, like beast, it before. 

And let from the bronze and unmoving eyelids,
Like some melting snow flow down the tears,
And let a jail dove coo in somewhat afar
And let the mute ships sail along the Neva.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Lewis Carroll - The Mouse's Tale (From Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

            Fury said to a mouse,
                 That he met in the
                        house, 'Let us
                           both go to law:
                            I will prosecute
                          you.-- Come, I'll
                         take no denial;
                       We must have
                     a trial: For
                   really this
                 morning I've
               nothing to do.'
                   Said the mouse
                         to the cur,
                           'Such a trial,
                              dear Sir, With
                                  no jury or
                                judge, would
                               be wasting
                           our breath.'
                        'I'll be
                   judge, I'll
                 be jury,'
               Said cunning
             old Fury:
                'I'll try
                  the whole
                    cause, and
                        condemn
                            you
                              to
                               death.'

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

ऋग्वेद - हिरण्यगर्भः सूक्त (Hymn of the Universal Womb)


हिरण्यगर्भः समवर्तताग्रे भूतस्य जातः पतिरेकासीत ।
स दाधार पृथ्वीं ध्यामुतेमां कस्मै देवायहविषा विधेम ॥१॥
य आत्मदा बलदा यस्य विश्व उपासते प्रशिषं यस्यदेवाः ।
यस्य छायामृतं यस्य मर्त्युः कस्मै देवायहविषा विधेम ॥२॥
यः प्राणतो निमिषतो महित्वैक इद्राजा जगतो बभूव ।
य ईशे अस्य द्विपदश्चतुष्पदः कस्मै देवाय हविषाविधेम ॥३॥
यस्येमे हिमवन्तो महित्वा यस्य समुद्रं रसया सहाहुः ।
यस्येमाः परदिशो यस्य बाहू कस्मै देवाय हविषाविधेम ॥४॥
येन दयौरुग्रा पर्थिवी च दर्ळ्हा येन सव सतभितं येननाकः ।
यो अन्तरिक्षे रजसो विमानः कस्मै देवायहविषा विधेम ॥५॥
यं करन्दसी अवसा तस्तभाने अभ्यैक्षेतां मनसारेजमाने ।
यत्राधि सूर उदितो विभाति कस्मै देवायहविषा विधेम ॥६॥
आपो ह यद बर्हतीर्विश्वमायन गर्भं दधानाजनयन्तीरग्निम ।
ततो देवानां समवर्ततासुरेकःकस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम ॥७॥
यश्चिदापो महिना पर्यपश्यद दक्षं दधानाजनयन्तीर्यज्ञम ।
यो देवेष्वधि देव एक आसीत कस्मैदेवाय हविषा विधेम ॥८॥
मा नो हिंसीज्जनिता यः पर्थिव्या यो वा दिवंसत्यधर्मा जजान ।
यश्चापश्चन्द्रा बर्हतीर्जजानकस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम ॥९॥
परजापते न तवदेतान्यन्यो विश्वा जातानि परि ताबभूव ।
यत्कामास्ते जुहुमस्तन नो अस्तु वयं सयाम पतयोरयीणाम ॥१०॥


वह था ह्रन्यगर्भ सृष्टि से पहले विद्यमान
वही तो सारे भूतजगत का स्वामी महान
जो है अस्तित्वमान धरती आसमान धारण कर
ऐसे किस देवता की उपासना करें हम अवि देकर
जिस के बल पर तेजोमय है अम्बर
पृथ्वी हरी भरी स्थापित स्थिर
स्वर्ग और सूरज भी स्थिर
ऐसे किस देवता की उपासना करें हम अवि देकर
गर्भ में अपने अग्नि धारण कर पैदा कर
व्यापा था जल इधर उधर नीचे ऊपर
जगात देवो का ऐकमेव प्राण बनकर
ऐसे किस देवता की उपासना करें हम अवि देकर
ओम! सृष्टि निर्माता स्वर्ग रचियता पुर्वज रक्षा कर
स्तय धर्म पालक अतुल जल नियामक रक्षा कर
फैली हैं दिशाए बाहू जैसी उसकी सब में सब पर
ऐसे ही देवता की उपासना करें हम अवि देकर
ऐसे ही देवता की उपासना करें हम अवि देकर


In the beginning was the Divinity in his splendour, manifested as the sole Lord of land, skies, water, space and that beneath and He upheld the earth and the heavens.
Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?

It is that who bestows soul-force and vigor, whose guidance all men invoke, the Devas invoke whose shadow is immortal life and death.
Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?

It is that who by His greatness became the One King of the breathing and the seeing, who is the Lord of man and bird and beast.
Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?

It is that through whose glory the snow-clad mountains rose, and the ocean spread with the river, they say. His arms are the quarters of the sky.
Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings ?

It is that through whom the heaven is strong and the earth firm, who has steadied the light and the sky's vault, and measured out the sphere of clouds in the mid-region.
Who is the deity we shall worship with our offering?

It is that to whom heaven and earth, placed in the light by his grace, look up, radiant with the mind while over them the sun, rising, brightly shines.
Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?

When the mighty waters came, carrying the universal germ, producing the flame of life, then dwelt there in harmony the One Spirit of the Devas.
Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?

It is that who in its might surveyed the waters, conferring skill and creating worship - That, the God of gods, the One and only One.
Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?

Mother of the world - may that not destroy us who with Truth as his Law made the heavens and produced waters, vast and beautiful.
Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?

Lord of creation! No one other than thee pervades all these that have come into being.
May that be ours, for which our prayers rise, may we be masters of many treasures!

Hiraṇyagarbha Sūkta (Hymn of the Universal Womb) from the 121st sukta of the 10th mandala of Rigveda

ऋग्वेद - नासदीय सूक्त (Hymn of Creation)


नासदासींनॊसदासीत्तदानीं नासीद्रजॊ नॊ व्यॊमापरॊ यत् ।
किमावरीव: कुहकस्यशर्मन्नभ: किमासीद्गहनं गभीरम् ॥१॥
न मृत्युरासीदमृतं न तर्हि न रात्र्या।आन्ह।आसीत् प्रकॆत: ।
आनीदवातं स्वधया तदॆकं तस्माद्धान्यन्नपर: किंचनास ॥२॥
तम।आअसीत्तमसा गूह्ळमग्रॆ प्रकॆतं सलिलं सर्वमा।इदम् ।
तुच्छॆनाभ्वपिहितं यदासीत्तपसस्तन्महिना जायतैकम् ॥३॥
कामस्तदग्रॆ समवर्तताधि मनसॊ रॆत: प्रथमं यदासीत् ।
सतॊबन्धुमसति निरविन्दन्हृदि प्रतीष्या कवयॊ मनीषा ॥४॥
तिरश्चीनॊ विततॊ रश्मीरॆषामध: स्विदासी ३ दुपरिस्विदासीत् ।
रॆतॊधा।आसन्महिमान् ।आसन्त्स्वधा ।आवस्तात् प्रयति: परस्तात् ॥५॥
कॊ ।आद्धा वॆद क‌।इह प्रवॊचत् कुत ।आअजाता कुत ।इयं विसृष्टि: ।
अर्वाग्दॆवा ।आस्य विसर्जनॆनाथाकॊ वॆद यत ।आबभूव ॥६॥
इयं विसृष्टिर्यत ।आबभूव यदि वा दधॆ यदि वा न ।
यॊ ।आस्याध्यक्ष: परमॆ व्यॊमन्त्सॊ आंग वॆद यदि वा न वॆद ॥७॥


सृष्टि से पहले सत नहीं था, असत भी नहीं
अंतरिक्ष भी नहीं, आकाश भी नहीं था
छिपा था क्या कहाँ, किसने ढका था
उस पल तो अगम, अटल जल भी कहाँ था?
सृष्टि का कौन है कर्ता, कर्ता है वा अकर्ता
ऊंचे आकाश में रहता, सता अदृश्य बना रहता
वही सचमुच में जानता, या नहीं भी जानता
हैं किसी को नहीं पता नहीं है पता


Then even nothingness was not, nor existence,
There was no air then, nor the heavens beyond it.
What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping
Was there then cosmic water, in depths unfathomed?
Then there was neither death nor immortality
nor was there then the torch of night and day.
The One breathed windlessly and self-sustaining.
There was that One then, and there was no other.
At first there was only darkness wrapped in darkness.
All this was only unillumined water.
That One which came to be, enclosed in nothing,
arose at last, born of the power of heat.
In the beginning desire descended on it -
that was the primal seed, born of the mind.
The sages who have searched their hearts with wisdom
know that which is is kin to that which is not.
And they have stretched their cord across the void,
and know what was above, and what below.
Seminal powers made fertile mighty forces.
Below was strength, and over it was impulse.
But, after all, who knows, and who can say
Whence it all came, and how creation happened?
the gods themselves are later than creation,
so who knows truly whence it has arisen?
Whence all creation had its origin,
he, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not,
he, who surveys it all from highest heaven,
he knows - or maybe even he does not know.

Nāsadīya Sūkta (Hymn of Creation) from the 129th sukta of the 10th mandala of Rigveda

Thursday, April 26, 2012

नागार्जुन - बादल को घिरते देखा है


अमल धवल गिरि के शिखरों पर,
बादल को घिरते देखा है।

छोटे-छोटे मोती जैसे
उसके शीतल तुहिन कणों को,
मानसरोवर के उन स्वर्णिम
कमलों पर गिरते देखा है,
बादल को घिरते देखा है।

तुंग हिमालय के कंधों पर
छोटी बड़ी कई झीलें हैं,
उनके श्यामल नील सलिल में
समतल देशों ले आ-आकर
पावस की उमस से आकुल
तिक्त-मधुर बिसतंतु खोजते
हंसों को तिरते देखा है।
बादल को घिरते देखा है।

ऋतु वसंत का सुप्रभात था
मंद-मंद था अनिल बह रहा
बालारुण की मृदु किरणें थीं
अगल-बगल स्वर्णाभ शिखर थे
एक-दूसरे से विरहित हो
अलग-अलग रहकर ही जिनको
सारी रात बितानी होती,
निशा-काल से चिर-अभिशापित
बेबस उस चकवा-चकई का
बंद हुआ क्रंदन, फिर उनमें
उस महान् सरवर के तीरे
शैवालों की हरी दरी पर
प्रणय-कलह छिड़ते देखा है।
बादल को घिरते देखा है।

दुर्गम बर्फानी घाटी में
शत-सहस्र फुट ऊँचाई पर
अलख नाभि से उठने वाले
निज के ही उन्मादक परिमल-
के पीछे धावित हो-होकर
तरल-तरुण कस्तूरी मृग को
अपने पर चिढ़ते देखा है,
बादल को घिरते देखा है।
कहाँ गय धनपति कुबेर वह
कहाँ गई उसकी वह अलका
नहीं ठिकाना कालिदास के
व्योम-प्रवाही गंगाजल का,
ढूँढ़ा बहुत किन्तु लगा क्या
मेघदूत का पता कहीं पर,
कौन बताए वह छायामय
बरस पड़ा होगा न यहीं पर,
जाने दो वह कवि-कल्पित था,
मैंने तो भीषण जाड़ों में
नभ-चुंबी कैलाश शीर्ष पर,
महामेघ को झंझानिल से
गरज-गरज भिड़ते देखा है,
बादल को घिरते देखा है।

शत-शत निर्झर-निर्झरणी कल
मुखरित देवदारु कनन में,
शोणित धवल भोज पत्रों से
छाई हुई कुटी के भीतर,
रंग-बिरंगे और सुगंधित
फूलों की कुंतल को साजे,
इंद्रनील की माला डाले
शंख-सरीखे सुघड़ गलों में,
कानों में कुवलय लटकाए,
शतदल लाल कमल वेणी में,
रजत-रचित मणि खचित कलामय
पान पात्र द्राक्षासव पूरित
रखे सामने अपने-अपने
लोहित चंदन की त्रिपटी पर,
नरम निदाग बाल कस्तूरी
मृगछालों पर पलथी मारे
मदिरारुण आखों वाले उन
उन्मद किन्नर-किन्नरियों की
मृदुल मनोरम अँगुलियों को
वंशी पर फिरते देखा है।
बादल को घिरते देखा है।

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

जयशंकर प्रसाद - हिमाद्रि तुंग शृंग से

हिमाद्रि तुंग शृंग से 
प्रबुद्ध शुद्ध भारती
स्वयंप्रभा समुज्ज्वला
स्वतंत्रता पुकारती

अर्मत्य वीर पुत्र हो
दृढ़ प्रतिज्ञ सोच लो
प्रशस्त पुण्य पंथ है
बढ़े चलो बढ़े चलो!

असंख्य कीर्ति रश्मियाँ
विकीर्ण दिव्य दाह-सी
सपूत मातृभूमि के
रुको न शूर साहसी

अराति सैन्य सिंधु में
सुबाड़वाग्नि से जलो
प्रवीर हो जयी बनो
बढ़े चलो बढ़े चलो!



-जयशंकर प्रसाद

भवानी प्रसाद मिश्र - सतपुड़ा के घने जंगल

सतपुड़ा के घने जंगल।
नींद मे डूबे हुए से
ऊँघते अनमने जंगल।

झाड ऊँचे और नीचे,
चुप खड़े हैं आँख मीचे,
घास चुप है, कास चुप है
मूक शाल, पलाश चुप है।
बन सके तो धँसो इनमें,
धँस न पाती हवा जिनमें,
सतपुड़ा के घने जंगल
ऊँघते अनमने जंगल।

सड़े पत्ते, गले पत्ते,
हरे पत्ते, जले पत्ते,
वन्य पथ को ढँक रहे-से
पंक-दल मे पले पत्ते।
चलो इन पर चल सको तो,
दलो इनको दल सको तो,
ये घिनोने, घने जंगल
नींद मे डूबे हुए से
ऊँघते अनमने जंगल।

अटपटी-उलझी लताऐं,
डालियों को खींच खाऐं,
पैर को पकड़ें अचानक,
प्राण को कस लें कपाऐं।
सांप सी काली लताऐं
बला की पाली लताऐं
लताओं के बने जंगल
नींद मे डूबे हुए से
ऊँघते अनमने जंगल।

मकड़ियों के जाल मुँह पर,
और सर के बाल मुँह पर
मच्छरों के दंश वाले,
दाग काले-लाल मुँह पर,
वात- झन्झा वहन करते,
चलो इतना सहन करते,
कष्ट से ये सने जंगल,
नींद मे डूबे हुए से
ऊँघते अनमने जंगल|

अजगरों से भरे जंगल।
अगम, गति से परे जंगल
सात-सात पहाड़ वाले,
बड़े छोटे झाड़ वाले,
शेर वाले बाघ वाले,
गरज और दहाड़ वाले,
कम्प से कनकने जंगल,
नींद मे डूबे हुए से
ऊँघते अनमने जंगल।

इन वनों के खूब भीतर,
चार मुर्गे, चार तीतर
पाल कर निश्चिन्त बैठे,
विजनवन के बीच बैठे,
झोंपडी पर फ़ूंस डाले
गोंड तगड़े और काले।
जब कि होली पास आती,
सरसराती घास गाती,
और महुए से लपकती,
मत्त करती बास आती,
गूंज उठते ढोल इनके,
गीत इनके, बोल इनके

सतपुड़ा के घने जंगल
नींद मे डूबे हुए से
उँघते अनमने जंगल।

जागते अँगड़ाइयों में,
खोह-खड्डों खाइयों में,
घास पागल, कास पागल,
शाल और पलाश पागल,
लता पागल, वात पागल,
डाल पागल, पात पागल
मत्त मुर्गे और तीतर,
इन वनों के खूब भीतर।
क्षितिज तक फ़ैला हुआ सा,
मृत्यु तक मैला हुआ सा,
क्षुब्ध, काली लहर वाला
मथित, उत्थित जहर वाला,
मेरु वाला, शेष वाला
शम्भु और सुरेश वाला
एक सागर जानते हो,
उसे कैसा मानते हो?
ठीक वैसे घने जंगल,
नींद मे डूबे हुए से
ऊँघते अनमने जंगल|

धँसो इनमें डर नहीं है,
मौत का यह घर नहीं है,
उतर कर बहते अनेकों,
कल-कथा कहते अनेकों,
नदी, निर्झर और नाले,
इन वनों ने गोद पाले।
लाख पंछी सौ हिरन-दल,
चाँद के कितने किरन दल,
झूमते बन-फ़ूल, फ़लियाँ,
खिल रहीं अज्ञात कलियाँ,
हरित दूर्वा, रक्त किसलय,
पूत, पावन, पूर्ण रसमय
सतपुड़ा के घने जंगल,
लताओं के बने जंगल।


- भवानी प्रसाद मिश्र

Saturday, June 19, 2010

William Blake - Auguries of Innocence

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage.

A dove-house fill'd with doves and pigeons
Shudders hell thro' all its regions.
A dog starv'd at his master's gate
Predicts the ruin of the state.

A horse misused upon the road
Calls to heaven for human blood.
Each outcry of the hunted hare
A fibre from the brain does tear.

A skylark wounded in the wing,
A cherubim does cease to sing.
The game-cock clipt and arm'd for fight
Does the rising sun affright.

Every wolf's and lion's howl
Raises from hell a human soul.

The wild deer, wand'ring here and there,
Keeps the human soul from care.
The lamb misus'd breeds public strife,
And yet forgives the butcher's knife.

The bat that flits at close of eve
Has left the brain that won't believe.
The owl that calls upon the night
Speaks the unbeliever's fright.

He who shall hurt the little wren
Shall never be belov'd by men.
He who the ox to wrath has mov'd
Shall never be by woman lov'd.

The wanton boy that kills the fly
Shall feel the spider's enmity.
He who torments the chafer's sprite
Weaves a bower in endless night.

The caterpillar on the leaf
Repeats to thee thy mother's grief.
Kill not the moth nor butterfly,
For the last judgement draweth nigh.

He who shall train the horse to war
Shall never pass the polar bar.
The beggar's dog and widow's cat,
Feed them and thou wilt grow fat.

The gnat that sings his summer's song
Poison gets from slander's tongue.
The poison of the snake and newt
Is the sweat of envy's foot.

The poison of the honey bee
Is the artist's jealousy.

The prince's robes and beggar's rags
Are toadstools on the miser's bags.
A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.

It is right it should be so;
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.

Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.

The babe is more than swaddling bands;
Every farmer understands.
Every tear from every eye
Becomes a babe in eternity;

This is caught by females bright,
And return'd to its own delight.
The bleat, the bark, bellow, and roar,
Are waves that beat on heaven's shore.

The babe that weeps the rod beneath
Writes revenge in realms of death.
The beggar's rags, fluttering in air,
Does to rags the heavens tear.

The soldier, arm'd with sword and gun,
Palsied strikes the summer's sun.
The poor man's farthing is worth more
Than all the gold on Afric's shore.

One mite wrung from the lab'rer's hands
Shall buy and sell the miser's lands;
Or, if protected from on high,
Does that whole nation sell and buy.

He who mocks the infant's faith
Shall be mock'd in age and death.
He who shall teach the child to doubt
The rotting grave shall ne'er get out.

He who respects the infant's faith
Triumphs over hell and death.
The child's toys and the old man's reasons
Are the fruits of the two seasons.

The questioner, who sits so sly,
Shall never know how to reply.
He who replies to words of doubt
Doth put the light of knowledge out.

The strongest poison ever known
Came from Caesar's laurel crown.
Nought can deform the human race
Like to the armour's iron brace.

When gold and gems adorn the plow,
To peaceful arts shall envy bow.
A riddle, or the cricket's cry,
Is to doubt a fit reply.

The emmet's inch and eagle's mile
Make lame philosophy to smile.
He who doubts from what he sees
Will ne'er believe, do what you please.

If the sun and moon should doubt,
They'd immediately go out.
To be in a passion you good may do,
But no good if a passion is in you.

The whore and gambler, by the state
Licensed, build that nation's fate.
The harlot's cry from street to street
Shall weave old England's winding-sheet.

The winner's shout, the loser's curse,
Dance before dead England's hearse.

Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born,
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.

Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.

We are led to believe a lie
When we see not thro' the eye,
Which was born in a night to perish in a night,
When the soul slept in beams of light.

God appears, and God is light,
To those poor souls who dwell in night;
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day.

Dylan Thomas - Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night, 
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

William Ernest Henley - Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Percy Bysshe Shelley - Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert ... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works ye mighty and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

William Shakespeare - (Excerpt from) Hamlet

"It goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me; no, nor woman neither, though, by your smiling, you seem to say so."

James Leigh Hunt - The Glove and the Lions

King Francis was a hearty king, and loved a royal sport,
And one day, as his lions fought, sat looking on the court.
The nobles filled the benches, with the ladies in their pride,
And 'mongst them sat the Count de Lorge, with one for whom he signed:
And truly 'twas a gallant thing to see that crowning show,
Valor and love, and a king above, and the royal beasts below.

Ramped and roared the lions, with horrid laughing jaws;
They bit, they glared, gave blows like beams, a wind went with their paws;
With wallowing might and stifled roar they rolled on one another,
Till all the pit with sand and mane was in a thunderous smother;
The bloody foam above the bars came whisking through the air;
Said Francis then, "Faith, gentlemen, we're better here than there."

De Lorge's love o'er heard the King, a beauteous lively dame,
With smiling lips and sharp bright eyes, which always seemed the same;
She thought, The Count my lover is brave as brave can be;
He surely would do wondrous things to show his love of me;
King, ladies, lovers, all look on; the occasion is divine;
I'll drop my glove, to prove his love; great glory will be mine.

She dropped her glove, to prove his love, then looked at him and smiled;
He bowed, and in a moment leaped among the lions wild:
The leap was quick, return was quick, he has regained his place,
Then threw the glove, but not with love, right in the lady's face.
"By Heaven," said Francis, "rightly done!" and he rose from where he sat;
"No love," quoth he, "but vanity, sets love a task like that."