The Garden of Bright Waters Part 16

HEARTS OF WOMEN

It is hard for a man to tell The hidden thought in his friend's heart, And the thought in a man's own heart Is a thing darker.

If you have seen a woman's heart Bare to your eyes, Go quickly away and never tell What you have seen there.

_Street Song of Manchuria._

_PERSIA_

TO HIS LOVE INSTEAD OF A PROMISED PICTURE-BOOK

_The greater and the lesser ills:_ He waved his grey hand wearily Back to the anger of the sea, Then forward to the blue of hills.

Out from the shattered barquenteen The black frieze-coated sailors bore Their dying despot to the sh.o.r.e And wove a crazy palanquin.

They found a valley where the rain Had worn the fern-wood to a paste And tiny streams came down in haste To eastward of the mountain chain.

And here was handiwork of Cretes, And olives grew beside a stone, And one slim phallos stood alone Blasphemed at by the paroquets.

Hard by a wall of basalt bars The night came like a settling bird, And here he wept and slept and stirred Faintly beneath the turning stars.

Then like a splash of saffron whey That spills from out a bogwood bowl Oozed from the mountain clefts the whole Rich and reluctant light of day.

And when he neither moved nor spoke And did not heed the morning call, They laid him underneath the wall And wrapped him in a purple cloak.

_From the Modern Persian._

TOO SHORT A NIGHT

Lily of Streams lay by my side last night And to my prayers gave answers of delight; Day came before our fairy-tale was finished, Because the tale was long, not short the night.

_From the Persian of Abu-Said (978-1062)._

THE ROSES

Roses are a wandering scent from heaven.

Rose-seller, why do you sell your roses?

For silver? But with the silver from your roses What can you buy so precious as your roses?

_From the Persian of Abu-Yshac (middle of the tenth century)._

I ASKED MY LOVE

I asked my love: "Why do you make yourself so beautiful?"

"To please myself.

I am the eye, the mirror, and the loveliness; The loved one and the lover and the love."

_From the Persian of Abu-Said (978-1062)._

A REQUEST

When I am cold and undesirous and my lids lie dead, Come to watch by the body that loved you and say: This is _Rondagui_, whom I killed and my heart regrets for ever.

_From the Persian of Rondagui (tenth century)._

SEE YOU HAVE DANCERS

See you have dancers and wine and a girl like one of the angels (If they exist), And find a clear stream singing near its birth and a bed of moss (If moss exists), For loving and singing to the dancers and drinking and forgetting h.e.l.l (If h.e.l.l exists), Because this is a pastime better than paradise (If paradise exists).

_From the Persian of Omar Khayyam (eleventh century)._

_SIAM_

THE SIGHING HEART

I made search for you all my life, and when I found you There came a trouble on me, So that it seemed my blood escaped And my life ran back from me And my heart slipped into you.

It seems, also, that you are the moon And that I am at the top of a tree.

If I had wings I would spread them as far as you, Dear bud, that will not open Though the kisses of the holy bird knock at your petal door.

_Song of Siam._

_SYRIA_