In far Japan this story old
Is carved in ivory, graved in brass,
For jealous Fame, who loves the bold,
Lets not the gracious memory pass.
The amber sunset faded into night,
And round the base of lofty Dandoku
The ever-present shadows in the woods
Clung closer to the forest depths, yet rose,
Still clinging, from the mountain’s shaggy knees
To shining cone of snow that pierced the sky,
And still and breathless grew the darkened land.
Slow past the hours till in the east faint lights
Wavered awhile, then eddied into calm
And waxed apace, and from their midst, blood-red,
An angry moon sailed up a cloudless sky,
And all the peering shadows backward pressed,
Each upon other, ever clustering thick
To rearward of each bush and tree. But when
The blood-red splendor of the moon had paled
To white, and long and level rays became
Long rays that sloped from heaven’s mid-height, there past
Down Dandoku’s steep sides the merciful
Shaka-ni-yorai, full of holy thoughts.
No sound yet broke the silence, save when now
And then a stone, dislodged by Shaka’s steps,
Smote sharply ‘gainst its neighbor rocks, or bird,
Half-roused by passing feet, fluttered a wing
Or chirped a sleepy note.
No sound save these,
Till rose from out a jagged mountain cleft
A mystic voice that rang around the sky
And trembled to the limits of the world,
Proclaiming one of Buddha’s sacred truths:
Not always does the outward guise denote
The complex substance of the inner soul!
Lord Shaka, hearing, paused, then nearer drew
Toward the cleft, and peering downward, saw
A dragon on whose scales the moombeams shone,
And in whose eyes there glittered baleful fires.
No fear beset his soul at this strange sight,
But all unawed thereat, he by the edge
Sat down and questioned of the awful shape
Below, whence came this knowledge of the laws,
Which years of study had not shown to him.
“Knowing so much,” said Shaka, “thou must needs
Know more. I wait thy farther word. Say on.”
So saying, Shaka sat with join
(Oscar Fay Adams)
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Based on Topics: World Poems, Night Poems, Mind Poems, Soul Poems, Nature Poems, Sense & Perception Poems, Birds Poems, Education Poems, Anger Poems, Law & Regulation Poems, Silence PoemsBased on Keywords: ever-present, rearward, eddied, dislodged, shaka, mid-height, half-roused