^{translated from the Japanese by William George Aston}

The cry of the cicada

Gives us no sign

That presently it will die.

Batter my heart, three-personed God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy:
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,  
  The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,  
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,  
  And leaves the world to darkness and to me.  
  
Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,           
  And all the air a solemn stillness holds,  
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,  
  And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds:  
  
Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower  
  The moping owl does to the moon complain            
Of such as, wandering near her secret bower,  
  Molest her ancient solitary reign.  
  
Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade  
  Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,  
Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,            
  The rude Forefathers of the hamlet sleep.  
  
The breezy call of incense-breathing morn,  
  The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed,  
The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,  
  No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.            
  
For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn  
  Or busy housewife ply her evening care:  
No children run to lisp their sire's return,  
  Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.  
  
Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,            
  Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke;  
How jocund did they drive their team afield!  
  How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!  
  
Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,  
  Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;            
Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile  
  The short and simple annals of the Poor.  
  
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,  
  And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave  
Awaits alike th' inevitable hour:—            
  The paths of glory lead but to the grave.  
  
Nor you, ye Proud, impute to these the fault  
  If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise,  
Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault  
  The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.            
  
Can storied urn or animated bust  
  Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath,  
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,  
  Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?  
  
Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid            
  Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;  
Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,  
  Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre:  
  
But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page,  
  Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll;            
Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage,  
  And froze the genial current of the soul.  
  
Full many a gem of purest ray serene  
  The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:  
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,            
  And waste its sweetness on the desert air.  
  
Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast  
  The little tyrant of his fields withstood,  
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,  
  Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood.            
  
Th' applause of listening senates to command,  
  The threats of pain and ruin to despise,  
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,  
  And read their history in a nation's eyes  
  
Their lot forbad: nor circumscribed alone            
  Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined;  
Forbad to wade through slaughter to a throne,  
  And shut the gates of mercy on mankind;  
  
The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,  
  To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,            
Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride  
  With incense kindled at the Muse's flame.  
  
Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife  
  Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;  
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life            
  They kept the noiseless tenour of their way.  
  
Yet e'en these bones from insult to protect  
  Some frail memorial still erected nigh,  
With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd,  
  Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.            
  
Their name, their years, spelt by th' unletter'd Muse,  
  The place of fame and elegy supply:  
And many a holy text around she strews,  
  That teach the rustic moralist to die.  
  
For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,            
  This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd,  
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,  
  Nor cast one longing lingering look behind?  
  
On some fond breast the parting soul relies,  
  Some pious drops the closing eye requires;            
E'en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,  
  E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.  
  
For thee, who, mindful of th' unhonour'd dead,  
  Dost in these lines their artless tale relate;  
If chance, by lonely Contemplation led,            
  Some kindred spirit shall enquire thy fate,— 
  
Haply some hoary-headed swain may say,  
  'Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn  
Brushing with hasty steps the dews away,  
  To meet the sun upon the upland lawn;             
  
'There at the foot of yonder nodding beech  
  That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,  
His listless length at noon-tide would he stretch,  
  And pore upon the brook that babbles by.  
  
'Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn,             
  Muttering his wayward fancies he would rove;  
Now drooping, woeful-wan, like one forlorn,  
  Or crazed with care, or cross'd in hopeless love.  
  
'One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd hill,  
  Along the heath, and near his favourite tree;             
Another came; nor yet beside the rill,  
  Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he;  
  
'The next with dirges due in sad array  
  Slow through the church-way path we saw him borne,—
Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay             
  Graved on the stone beneath yon agèd thorn:'  
  
The Epitaph

Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth  
  A youth, to Fortune and to Fame unknown;  
Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth  
  And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.             
  
Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere;  
  Heaven did a recompense as largely send:  
He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a tear,  
  He gain'd from Heaven, 'twas all he wish'd, a friend.  
  
No farther seek his merits to disclose,             
  Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,  
(There they alike in trembling hope repose,)  
  The bosom of his Father and his God.

I

Living is no laughing matter:
	you must live with great seriousness
		like a squirrel, for example—
   I mean without looking for something beyond and above living,
		I mean living must be your whole occupation.
Living is no laughing matter:
	you must take it seriously,
	so much so and to such a degree
   that, for example, your hands tied behind your back,
                                            your back to the wall,
   or else in a laboratory
	in your white coat and safety glasses,
	you can die for people—
   even for people whose faces you’ve never seen,
   even though you know living
	is the most real, the most beautiful thing.
I mean, you must take living so seriously
   that even at seventy, for example, you’ll plant olive trees—
   and not for your children, either,
   but because although you fear death you don’t believe it,
   because living, I mean, weighs heavier.

II

Let’s say we’re seriously ill, need surgery—
which is to say we might not get up
			from the white table.
Even though it’s impossible not to feel sad
			about going a little too soon,
we’ll still laugh at the jokes being told,
we’ll look out the window to see if it’s raining,
or still wait anxiously
		for the latest newscast . . . 
Let’s say we’re at the front—
	for something worth fighting for, say.
There, in the first offensive, on that very day,
	we might fall on our face, dead.
We’ll know this with a curious anger,
        but we’ll still worry ourselves to death
        about the outcome of the war, which could last years.
Let’s say we’re in prison
and close to fifty,
and we have eighteen more years, say,
                        before the iron doors will open.
We’ll still live with the outside,
with its people and animals, struggle and wind—
                                I  mean with the outside beyond the walls.
I mean, however and wherever we are,
        we must live as if we will never die.

III

This earth will grow cold,
a star among stars
               and one of the smallest,
a gilded mote on blue velvet—
	  I mean this, our great earth.
This earth will grow cold one day,
not like a block of ice
or a dead cloud even 
but like an empty walnut it will roll along
	  in pitch-black space . . . 
You must grieve for this right now
—you have to feel this sorrow now—
for the world must be loved this much
                               if you’re going to say “I lived” . . .

The instructor said,

    Go home and write
    a page tonight.
    And let that page come out of you—
    Then, it will be true.

I wonder if it's that simple?
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.
I went to school there, then Durham, then here
to this college on the hill above Harlem.
I am the only colored student in my class.
The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem,
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,
Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,
the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator
up to my room, sit down, and write this page:

It's not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:
hear you, hear me—we two—you, me, talk on this page.
(I hear New York, too.) Me—who?
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records—Bessie, bop, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn't make me not like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?

Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white—
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That's American.
Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that's true!
As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from me—
although you're older—and white—
and somewhat more free.

This is my page for English B.

Sometimes with one I love I fill myself with rage for fear I effuse unreturn’d love,
But now I think there is no unreturn’d love, the pay is certain one way or another,
(I loved a certain person ardently and my love was not return’d,
Yet out of that I have written these songs.)

Between the computer, a pencil, and a typewriter
half my day passes. One day it will be half a century.
I live in strange cities and sometimes talk
with strangers about matters strange to me.
I listen to music a lot: Bach, Mahler, Chopin, Shostakovich.
I see three elements in music: weakness, power, and pain.
The fourth has no name.
I read poets, living and dead, who teach me
tenacity, faith, and pride. I try to understand
the great philosophers—but usually catch just
scraps of their precious thoughts.
I like to take long walks on Paris streets
and watch my fellow creatures, quickened by envy,
anger, desire; to trace a silver coin
passing from hand to hand as it slowly
loses its round shape (the emperor’s profile is erased).
Beside me trees expressing nothing
but a green, indifferent perfection.
Black birds pace the fields,
waiting patiently like Spanish widows.
I’m no longer young, but someone else is always older.
I like deep sleep, when I cease to exist,
and fast bike rides on country roads when poplars and houses
dissolve like cumuli on sunny days.
Sometimes in museums the paintings speak to me
and irony suddenly vanishes.
I love gazing at my wife’s face.
Every Sunday I call my father.
Every other week I meet with friends,
thus proving my fidelity.
My country freed itself from one evil. I wish
another liberation would follow. 
Could I help in this? I don’t know.
I’m truly not a child of the ocean,
as Antonio Machado wrote about himself,
but a child of air, mint and cello
and not all the ways of the high world
cross paths with the life that—so far—
belongs to me.

it’s 1962 March 28th
I’m sitting by the window on the Prague-Berlin train
night is falling
I never knew I liked
night descending like a tired bird on a smoky wet plain
I don’t like
comparing nightfall to a tired bird

I didn’t know I loved the earth
can someone who hasn’t worked the earth love it
I’ve never worked the earth
it must be my only Platonic love

and here I’ve loved rivers all this time
whether motionless like this they curl skirting the hills
European hills crowned with chateaus
or whether stretched out flat as far as the eye can see
I know you can’t wash in the same river even once
I know the river will bring new lights you'll never see
I know we live slightly longer than a horse but not nearly as long as a crow
I know this has troubled people before
                         and will trouble those after me
I know all this has been said a thousand times before
                         and will be said after me

I didn’t know I loved the sky
cloudy or clear
the blue vault Andrei studied on his back at Borodino
in prison I translated both volumes of War and Peace into Turkish
I hear voices
not from the blue vault but from the yard
the guards are beating someone again
I didn’t know I loved trees
bare beeches near Moscow in Peredelkino
they come upon me in winter noble and modest
beeches are Russian the way poplars are Turkish
“the poplars of Izmir
losing their leaves. . .
they call me The Knife. . .
                         lover like a young tree. . .
I blow stately mansions sky-high”
in the Ilgaz woods in 1920 I tied an embroidered linen handkerchief
                                        to a pine bough for luck

I never knew I loved roads
even the asphalt kind
Vera's behind the wheel we're driving from Moscow to the Crimea
                                                          Koktebele
                               formerly “Goktepé ili” in Turkish
the two of us inside a closed box
the world flows past on both sides distant and mute
I was never so close to anyone in my life
bandits stopped me on the red road between Bolu and Geredé
                                        when I was eighteen
apart from my life I didn’t have anything in the wagon they could take
and at eighteen our lives are what we value least
I’ve written this somewhere before
wading through a dark muddy street I'm going to the shadow play
Ramazan night
a paper lantern leading the way
maybe nothing like this ever happened
maybe I read it somewhere an eight-year-old boy
                                       going to the shadow play
Ramazan night in Istanbul holding his grandfather’s hand
   his grandfather has on a fez and is wearing the fur coat
      with a sable collar over his robe
   and there’s a lantern in the servant’s hand
   and I can’t contain myself for joy
flowers come to mind for some reason
poppies cactuses jonquils
in the jonquil garden in Kadikoy Istanbul I kissed Marika
fresh almonds on her breath
I was seventeen
my heart on a swing touched the sky
I didn’t know I loved flowers
friends sent me three red carnations in prison

I just remembered the stars
I love them too
whether I’m floored watching them from below
or whether I'm flying at their side

I have some questions for the cosmonauts
were the stars much bigger
did they look like huge jewels on black velvet
                             or apricots on orange
did you feel proud to get closer to the stars
I saw color photos of the cosmos in Ogonek magazine now don’t
   be upset comrades but nonfigurative shall we say or abstract
   well some of them looked just like such paintings which is to
   say they were terribly figurative and concrete
my heart was in my mouth looking at them
they are our endless desire to grasp things
seeing them I could even think of death and not feel at all sad
I never knew I loved the cosmos

snow flashes in front of my eyes
both heavy wet steady snow and the dry whirling kind
I didn’t know I liked snow

I never knew I loved the sun
even when setting cherry-red as now
in Istanbul too it sometimes sets in postcard colors
but you aren’t about to paint it that way
I didn’t know I loved the sea
                             except the Sea of Azov
or how much

I didn’t know I loved clouds
whether I’m under or up above them
whether they look like giants or shaggy white beasts

moonlight the falsest the most languid the most petit-bourgeois
strikes me
I like it

I didn’t know I liked rain
whether it falls like a fine net or splatters against the glass my
   heart leaves me tangled up in a net or trapped inside a drop
   and takes off for uncharted countries I didn’t know I loved
   rain but why did I suddenly discover all these passions sitting
   by the window on the Prague-Berlin train
is it because I lit my sixth cigarette
one alone could kill me
is it because I’m half dead from thinking about someone back in Moscow
her hair straw-blond eyelashes blue

the train plunges on through the pitch-black night
I never knew I liked the night pitch-black
sparks fly from the engine
I didn’t know I loved sparks
I didn’t know I loved so many things and I had to wait until sixty
   to find it out sitting by the window on the Prague-Berlin train
   watching the world disappear as if on a journey of no return

                                                     19 April 1962
                                                     Moscow