Sandhya Part 8

DISAPPOINTMENT

They think thee bitter: Thou art not made o' laughter Nor love's smile Can thy vision beguile: Like a black-fiery comet Suddenly, sinisterly, thou comest; Making thy fateful journey, Littering the floor of destiny With wreckages of life, Of love, of heart-- Of all visitors thou art the surest; Halting nowhere long, endlessly pa.s.sest, Dragging behind thee thy train of fire That burneth all, heedless of curse or prayer.

53

BUDDHA

On thy Lotus-seat of Night,-- Meditation closing thy eyes,-- The Star Hosts thy awe-struck devotees: The Moon, thy halo unchanging.

White-robed time telling his beads Of aeons on the thread of Eternity By the ocean of s.p.a.ce Slumbering in peace at thy feet; While Destiny stringing the lyre of death Sings Nirvana's hymn.

54

Ask me not to stand at thy friendship's gate-- I, who loved thee, now must like a cold spectre from a far forgotten land of snow Watch thee fall asleep on the couch of freezing friendship?

In these arms thou sought and joyed on many delights Excavated the ruins of pa.s.sion to build them anew, Or sailed on thy wings--these arms--over love's enchanted sea.

Friendship!

Barrier not this, but a coward's refuge-- A shadow, not the rainbow-light of loving and life.

O come, my pilot, conduct the bark of our twin souls From cold friendship's haven Over love's boistrous desire-foam-fringed ocean Till in the sheer joy and fatigue of flying We fail, fall and fade Into the heart of Pa.s.sion's another fire-born day.

55

Golden vines they, These thin lines of light, Climbing the sky-wall After the sun sank into sleep.

Like rills, thread-like, Seen from a jutting rock Where air is dizzy And fancy infinite, free.

What fiery wine Tingles in these vines Weaving golden arabesques On the pale evening sky?

Ah, the heavens this hour Have drunk of sunset's ruby Wine For those golden cobwebs to weave Their magic of twilight dreams.

56

AT SUNDOWN

Two shadows fell, tremulous and frail, From the upland over the lake-surface pale, While the shivering reeds shook at sunset, As the swans sailed into a sea of jet.

The rippling waters, and the breeze, And the shadows that fall from the trees, Mingled and melted with the twain, A song of whitewashed away by its black refrain.

Only words remained, palpitating and few, Falling through the gloom and night's dew Like jewelled fancies rising out of a dream That live for a moment and die ere they gleam.

57

Tears well out from my heart, As clouds overcast my soul, And blur my vision of thee.

Melancholy this dawn, When thy smile and words, And thy sky-shaming eyes Are not beside me to rouse me from sleep.

Though cry I without end, Yet a thought of thee heals many wounds, Why? thou ask me; how can I tell?

All thou wish to take is thine; Not even the dust of thy feet I seek, Only leave me the star of thy memory To bathe in the rain of my weeping.

58

At last thou comest; Thy footsteps I hear across the ages, Over wandering fancies, Through shadows of dreams Is thy coming, Queen of queens.

This shimmering summer of life That thou bringest with thee As a gift to my silent waiting Is but what I prayed to bring To the altar of thy coming.

I spread the seat of my soul, For thee to rest thy tired limbs; And wave the fan of my heart To cool thy lotus-shaming face, Lady of light, queen of grace.

Come to my bower of worship, Where burns the incense of devotion, Lay thy rose-robed body In the shrine of my longing, Where love's rainbow-songs are ringing.

59

The lingering light of the sun Takes from the chalice of the valley Its mist-perfume to wash the Moon-face with rose.

In the pool at my feet the goldfishes drag their trains of brown Which cleave it into parts that ceaselessly mingle anew.

The moon, silver bright Through thousand streams sends her light Into the valley aswoon, listening to the harmony of night.

60