Sol 5.6

  1. I said to the sea, as I stood there at evening:

    How long I have lingered, standing and listening!

  2. I made the breeze sustenance for my soul,

    and drank in the shadows and the lights.

  3. It was as though the many-hued lights

    had made you a lush garden.

  4. Its fragrance passed over me and intoxicated my soul,

    coursing through my depths wherever it wished.

  5. So I cast off all cares and burdens,

    and forgot torment and searing pain.

  6. It seemed to my mind’s eye that I saw

    a wakeful figure lowering his two eyes in modesty,

  7. as though existence held nothing but

    his beauty and beautiful nature.

  8. A rapture that did not last—the heart sobered from it

    just as it had been, or in still harsher anguish.

  9. Only a kindred spirit understands its like.

    O sea, we are not equals:

  10. you endure, while we are at war with the nights

    that rend us and grind us to dust.

  11. You rage, while we are like foam, depart—

    —ing: it rises awhile, then passes away as refuse.

  12. Strange that I should have turned my face toward you

    when I had grown weary of life and all living things.

  13. I seek solace from you, though you possess

    no reply, nor do you answer any call.

  14. Each day you question—if only I knew—

    who could inform me and tell the tidings truly?

  15. What do the waves say? What has grieved the su—

    —n, that she turns away sorrowful and pale,

  16. leaving us, and leaving behind a night of doubt,

    eternal, and mute darkness?

  17. Ah, this majesty, this unknowable eternity—

    it only deepens my bewilderment and mystery.

  18. The smallness of humankind within it terrified me,

    and I wept for life and every living thing.

  19. I wept for delusion, and for hope so va—

    —st; for wrath, contentment, and hypocrisy.

  20. What hope can a feather in the wind’s path hold out to him

    when it encounters the hurricane and tempests?

  21. What can that fading ember promise him,

    soon to be as though it had never shone?

  22. And the vision that appeared, then vanished,

    without lingering—as though it had never appeared?

  23. We are fate’s plaything—and who

    commands anything? Who can repel fate?

  24. Perhaps fate mocks me

    when I weep, though I never knew how to weep.

  25. Then let fate leave me to weep, that I may heal;

    love’s abasement has left no pride.

  26. Behind my tears my beloved’s face gleamed;

    I see no solace for my heart but him.

  27. I said to my heart, “Your thirst’s relief has come—drink your fill!

    How long we thirsted, yet found no water.

  28. Life has rewarded us with nothing but this:

    his beautiful face suffices us as reward.”

Sol 5.6