[Lika_k]

Theodore Stephanides
Earthbound
You will not meet me in the night
By moonlight or by candlelight,
You will not see me when the day
Has chased the last lone star away.
You cannot know that I am here
Although, unguessed, I linger near,
Nor can you hear my footstep fall
In garden, gallery or hall.

I loved this home of mine too well,
It cast upon my soul a spell,
And when my hour of death came round
I could not leave this plot of ground.
I lavished worship (that I own)
Upon a pile of brick and stone;
Was that a sin? I do not know —
I would not... then I could not go.

Was it a sin to love with might
The home where I first saw the light?
The home I cherished year by year,
A panel there, a picture here?
Or else the garden where my hand
A lily-pond or arbour planned?
And this tall tree, this rose that clings,
Are they not living, loving things?

Was it a sin? It may be so —
I would not... then I could not go.
And now my punishment is this:
To linger here all powerless,
And, powerless, to flutter round
And watch my home torn to the ground.
I wring my hands, but none will heed,
They cannot see me weep and plead.

Tomorrow, I have heard them say,
They mean the trees away;
Those trees I planted one by one
That they might soar towards the sun.
What will be left for me to mourn
When house and garden — all are gone?
When there is left no brisk, no tree...
Ah, God in Heaven, pity me!
(from "Worlds in a Crucible" 1973)

Alfred Kubin - The Guardian (1902-03)

@темы: s, poetry, 20, k, symbolism, helenike, deutsche-oesterreichisch