A Prayer on Going into My House

字號:


     God grant a blessing on this tower and cottage
     And on my heirs, if all remain unspoiled,
     No table or chair or stool not simple enough
     For shepherd lads in Galilee; and grant
     That I myself for portions of the year
     May handle nothing and set eyes on nothing
     But what the great and passionate have used
     Throughout so many varying centuries
     We take it for the norm; yet should I dream
     Sinbad the sailor‘s brought a painted chest,
     Or image, from beyond the Loadstone Mountain,
     That dream is a norm; and should some limb of the devil
     Destroy the view by cutting down an ash
     That shades the road, or setting up a cottage
     Planned in a government office, shorten his life,
     Manacle his soul upon the Red Sea bottom.