Having seen them long,
I hold the flowers so dear
That when they scatter
I find it all the more sad
To bid them my last farewell.

A thrush, because I'd been wrong,
Burst rightly into song
In a world not vague, not lonely,
Not governed by me only.

Having drifted apart,
Why should folk
Despise each other? For
Not known and unknowing
Times there were once before…

"Have you ever made a just man?"
"Oh, I have made three," answered God,
"But two of them are dead,
And the third --
Listen! Listen!
And you will hear the thud of his defeat."

Have no fear, O restless mind,
The Eternal One takes thought for you.
He knows how to fulfil your wants.
Then cry to Him alone for help,
His Name will lead you safe across.

There are places I go when I am strong.
One is a marsh pool where I used to go
with a long-ear hound-dog.
One is a wild crabapple tree; I was there
a moonlight night with a girl.
The dog is gone; the girl is gone; I go to these
places when there is no other place to go.

Den lille Svale fik ei Ørnens Flugt,
Men kyset blev den dog af Digterguden;
Sin Sang den qviddrer klagende, men smukt,
I det den slaaer med Vingerne paa Ruden.

Reap, reap the grain and gather
The sweet grapes from the vine;
Our Lord's mother is weeping,
She hath nor bread nor wine;
She is weeping. The Queen of Heaven,
She hath nor bread nor wine.

Harvest moon--
called at his house,
he was digging potatoes.


Translated by Robert Hass

So the world of odds and evens ceased to trouble Harry Stephens,
and the niggard road no longer echoes to his lonely tread.
For another bushman found him with his ‘bluey’ wrapped around him, sleeping like a bushman, only sleeping with the mighty dead.
And the shadows were upon him, and they found a ticket on him – just a relic of a battle that was lately lost and won.
And it told the stray Camboonian he’d been loyal to his union (right or wrong) – he had been loyal to the strike of ‘91’.