Bài số 17 (Khi năm tháng qua và những con ong ám ảnh những khu vườn mùa hè) 17 (While ages passed and the bees haunted the summer gardens)

17 (While ages passed and the bees haunted the summer gardens)

While ages passed and the bees haunted the summer gardens, the moon smiled to the lilies of the night, the lightning flashed their fiery kisses to the clouds and fled laughing, the poet stood in a corner, one with the trees and clouds. He kept his heart silent, like a flower, watched through his dreams as does the crescent moon; and wandered like the summer breeze for no purpose.

One April evening, when the moon rose up like a bubble from the depth of the sunset; and one maiden was busy watering the plants; and one feeding her doe, and one making her peacock dance, the poet broke out singing,—”O listen to the secrets of the world. I know that the lily is pale for the moon’s love. The lotus draws her veil aside before the morning sun, and the reason is simple if you think. The meaning of the bee’s hum in the ear of the early jasmine has escaped the learned, but the poet knows.”

The sun went down in a blaze of blush, the moon loitered behind the trees, and the south wind whispered to the lotus, that the poet was not as simple as he seemed. The maidens and youths clapped their hands and cried,—”The world’s secret is out.” They looked into each other’s eyes and sang—”Let our secret as well be flung into the winds.”