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Why should we recall it, they answered;

Does my name beat in your heart always, they asked;

Never, they answered; and the taste of our kisses, they asked,

Do you taste them still?

No, they answered; all is gone, kisses too;

Forgotten, like a broken cup, its contents spilled.

So through the barren night they wandered,

Through the frozen meadows,

Only darkness hearing their words.

106

Worldly concerns are again drawing me.

The world seduces me: my thoughts

Grow narrow and covetous.

Once I used to visit you,

Passing there in the early morning;

Stopped my horse at your gate and tapped;

You sent your children to lead me in,

And you ran to the door to greet me,

Gown flapping round your bare ankles,

Laughing, cap awry.

And we breakfasted together on the swept terrace

With its view to the hills and the eastern lodge high up,

Its roof visible above the trees.

We talked all day sometimes,

But never spoke of profit or office.

Since we parted, how long has passed?

The leaves were falling then; now I hear

The new cicadas sing. And I

Have been drawn back to worldly concerns;

The world seduces me again,

Though we never talked of office and profit.

107

How great a thing is a cup of wine!

A single cup makes us tell the story of our lives.

By the willows that gaze at themselves in the pond

We drank and talked of our schooldays together,

Amazed at our folly then, and our ignorance:

We were ambitious, and never paused to sit quietly,

To look at the moon, to listen to the oriole sing,

To appreciate the shapes of oak leaves and acorns.

Now I listen to the water falling in the stream,

And if I have you and a cup of wine with me there

I can tell the story of my life again, and listen to yours.

108

Do I love you for the fine soft waves of hair

That fall about your neck when you undress?

Do I love you for the flowers on your cheeks, the rose

And the fragrant blossom there of palest red?

Do I love you for your coral lips, and the kisses I plant there,

Though those kisses may melt

Mightiest tyrants, and waken death to life?

Do I love you for those pearl teeth

That guard the music of your voice,

Or that ivory pillar of your neck, or your breasts

Soft and fair with rosy nipples crowned?

Do I love you, fairest of all fair?

109

Let there be persuasions to joy, O love.

Before the quick eye and darting affection grow cold,

Before the graces of manner and face change or fall,

Before golden hair grows to snow, or fresh beauty fades:

Let there be persuasions to joy.

Before time brings his sickle, or his wings,

Let us grasp it, and gather what now is,

And live before winter.

110

Have you grown a stranger to peace?

Are you troubled? Take the flagon and a cup;

Leave the turmoil of the town, its dust and clamour,

Walk up those paths that wind into the woods,

And let the sunlight paint patterns through the leaves around you,

The chorus of birds sing to you,

The stream falling among the rocks soothe you.

In the brevity of life there is little time for these self-estrangements.

Go up to the woods;

You will find yourself waiting there,

Flagon and cup ready, peace seated beside you.

111

Every petal that falls reduces spring.

Every leaf that falls hurries the year’s end towards us.

Having studied the world, I wonder at man:

How can he be so deaf to that roar,

That thunder of passing time?

112

The butterflies go deeper and deeper among the flowers,

The dragonflies hover between drops of water

Flung up in the fountain’s spray.

Watching them I see that they are unconcerned about what troubles us,

Which is that our candle of life flutters so weakly in the blast of time.

We have so little chance to know each other, beloved,

We should never be apart.

113

When born we weep, while others round us smile.

May we live that when we die

We smile, and others round us weep.

Do not deceive, do not offer strangers wrong;

Act a brother’s part in all;

Then shall you smile on the last day,

To have lived as humanity should:

To be mourned