How carelessly you wore your beauty!
Lightly as if ’twere cloth of air,
Too heavy for your soul to wear,
As if to deny your gifts a duty,
Alas, for now you sigh
To see your graces fly.
That white hand, that rosy tinge,
Upon the cheek’s deep pallor caught—
Mounting and rising with your thought,
The dark hair’s soft fringe
That on the high wide forehead lay—
And the eyes burning brown
That no heart could disown.
As after a dull gala-day
A rich indifferent girl
Throws down each moon-clear pearl
That on small ear tips lay,
Precious and gay,
Or an exquisite gown,
Thrown idly down.
So careless of your gifts you walked—
Lost in a vision’s gleam
Or pale abstraction, ghostly dream,
While close behind Love’s shadow stalked
Until with his last sigh,
You turned and saw him die.
In mid-way of your path you heard that cry—
And from his quiver of gold,
The last arrow, stinging hot and cold,
Unsealed your blood no longer frozen dry
Kindling the fires unsated,
Passionate, unabated.
The fires that chill your life, torment the mind,
Even the enrapt vision gone,
The Platonic fury it has fed upon
Hears love’s sigh on every wind,
Looks in an endless urn that now discloses
Embers of joy, ashes of roses.
(Marya Zaturenska)
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