Sunday, April 14, 2013
We’re all curious about what might hurt us:
posted by fuzzkill 5:01 pm
| Conrad Aiken |
| 126. Morning Song From "Senlin" |
| IT is morning, Senlin says, and in the morning | |
| When the light drips through the shutters like the dew, | |
| I arise, I face the sunrise, | |
| And do the things my fathers learned to do. | |
| Stars in the purple dusk above the rooftops | 5 |
| Pale in a saffron mist and seem to die, | |
| And I myself on swiftly tilting planet | |
| Stand before a glass and tie my tie. | |
| Vine-leaves tap my window, | |
| Dew-drops sing to the garden stones, | 10 |
| The robin chirps in the chinaberry tree | |
| Repeating three clear tones. | |
| It is morning. I stand by the mirror | |
| And tie my tie once more. | |
| While waves far off in a pale rose twilight | 15 |
| Crash on a white sand shore. | |
| I stand by a mirror and comb my hair: | |
| How small and white my face!— | |
| The green earth tilts through a sphere of air | |
| And bathes in a flame of space. | 20 |
| There are houses hanging above the stars | |
| And stars hung under a sea... | |
| And a sun far off in a shell of silence | |
| Dapples my walls for me.... | |
| It is morning, Senlin says, and in the morning | 25 |
| Should I not pause in the light to remember God? | |
| Upright and firm I stand on a star unstable, | |
| He is immense and lonely as a cloud. | |
| I will dedicate this moment before my mirror | |
| To him alone, for him I will comb my hair. | 30 |
| Accept these humble offerings, clouds of silence! | |
| I will think of you as I descend the stair. | |
| Vine-leaves tap my window, | |
| The snail-track shines on the stones; | |
| Dew-drops flash from the chinaberry tree | 35 |
| Repeating two clear tones. | |
| It is morning, I awake from a bed of silence, | |
| Shining I rise from the starless waters of sleep. | |
| The walls are about me still as in the evening, | |
| I am the same, and the same name still I keep. | 40 |
| The earth revolves with me, yet makes no motion, | |
| The stars pale silently in a coral sky. | |
| In a whistling void I stand before my mirror, | |
| Unconcerned, and tie my tie. | |
| There are horses neighing on far-off hills | 45 |
| Tossing their long white manes, | |
| And mountains flash in the rose-white dusk, | |
| Their shoulders black with rains.... | |
| It is morning, I stand by the mirror | |
| And surprise my soul once more; | 50 |
| The blue air rushes above my ceiling, | |
| There are suns beneath my floor.... | |
| ...It is morning, Senlin says, I ascend from darkness | |
| And depart on the winds of space for I know not where; | |
| My watch is wound, a key is in my pocket, | 55 |
| And the sky is darkened as I descend the stair. | |
| There are shadows across the windows, clouds in heaven, | |
| And a god among the stars; and I will go | |
| Thinking of him as I might think of daybreak | |
| And humming a tune I know.... | 60 |
| Vine-leaves tap at the window, | |
| Dew-drops sing to the garden stones, | |
| The robin chirps in the chinaberry tree | |
| Repeating three dear tones. |
posted by fuzzkill 5:01 pm
