Dhan Gopal Mukerji

Sandhya

Songs of Twilight
Published by Good Press, 2022
goodpress@okpublishing.info
EAN 4057664567604

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MRS. WILLIAM CLARK, JR.
FOREWORD
SANDHYA, SONGS OF TWILIGHT
I
SYMBOLISM
2
SOURCE OF SINGING
3
4
5
6
LASSITUDE
7
8
FORLORN
9
AFTER A BENGALI SONG
10
MOONRISE
11
AT VENTURA, CALIFORNIA
12
13
14
15
THE DREAM OF HIS SOUL
16
THE EURASIAN
17
18
THE INFIRM BEGGAR SINGS
19
20
COLOR-HARMONIES
21
SANATAN
(THE ABSOLUTE)
22
COMING OF THE FOG
23
24
THE END
25
THE CONFLUENCE
26
27
TO
LEO B. MIHAN
28
CHOPIN'S FUNERAL MARCH
29
30
HENRIK IBSEN
31
AFTER HEARING "MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME"
32
THE COMING OF THE TIDE OF NIGHT
33
DEAD LOVE
34
35
WEARINESS
36
37
REMORSE
38
POET
39
WANDERER
40
AT DAWN
41
42
43
RAINY NIGHT
44
GHOSTS
45
RAIN
46
EVENING WORSHIP
47
48
49
TRUCE
50
A PARALLEL
51
52
DISAPPOINTMENT
53
BUDDHA
54
55
56
AT SUNDOWN
57
58
59
60
61
SOUND BUTTERFLIES
(IN A FOUNTAIN)
62
63
64
FAREWELL
(AFTER A HINDUSTANI SONG)
65
SATIETY
66
67
CHATTERTON
68
69
"WHO KNOWS"
70
THE FIRST VISION
71
SHANTI [5]
ERRATA

MRS. WILLIAM CLARK, JR.

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FOREWORD

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Like "Rajani" [perhaps more than], "Sandhya" is a slender rill that has drawn its music from my Bengali which has told upon its English structure. This and many other faults of these poems are due to their unyielding adherence to spontaneity.

"Sandhya" came then, as "Rajani" in its own way through the bed of my Bengali reflecting its sound and sense, and trying to echo back its music that descends on all with the fading twilight.

Dhan Gopal Mukerji.

N. B.—Since some of these poems were born without, and defy titles, I have refrained from forcing any on them.

SANDHYA, SONGS OF TWILIGHT

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I

SYMBOLISM

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Tongueless the bell!
 Lute without a song!
 It is not night
 It is God's dawn,
 Silence its unending song.
Over heart's valley,
 In the soul's night,
 Through pain's window
 Behold! His light!
 On Life's Height.
No prayer, now,
 Though death-waves roll,
 Faith's candle lit,
 Beside it sits the soul
 Reading Eternity's scroll.

2

SOURCE OF SINGING

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A bruised heart,
 A wounded soul,
A broken lute,
 That is all!
A sad evening,
 And a lone star,
Then song reddens—
 Sets life's forest afire!

3

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With purple shadows the mist measures the infinite sea
 That spreads her wave-raiment in lavender, violet, gray, and green;
 While with thin silver rays a lone star seeks to sound the deeps.
The breeze-wings tire of flight;
 The mist-threads weave a rose-fringed dusky drapery
 To cover the bare breasts of the dunes from the moon's langour-heavy eyes.
The shadows die in purple silence;
 Fades the one star from the sky,
 As the dark mist puts out the rose-red moon from its deep.
Pale gleams the lighthouse light;
 No warring waves break the peace of sleep tonight
 Nor a hungry wind shrieks in pain from the lea.
Under her heavy veil of black
 A languid sea sluggishly flows
 To some far land of forsaken dreams.

4

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"O, OLD! O, NEW!"[1]

Who are you?
 Why make me wait
 From the hour of dew
 Till another sunset?
 Why do I look
 For your coming?
 Listen to the weeping brook
 That might bring
 To my lonely shore
 A word from you.
 Ah, nothing! not a leaf's tremor!
 O, old! O, longed for new!
 Who are you? I ask;
 Know not why I seek
 From day to dusk
 Without waking or sleep,—
 No sleep! no waking!
 A dreaming, a longing;
 Not knowing, yet seeking,
 For your coming waiting—
 O, spring-born!
 O, autumn-clad!
 O, soul's new morn!
 O, old! O, glad!
 So glad, so young!
 O, unseen, unknown,
 O, fugitive vision!
 O, eternal moan
 In my heart—
O, tearful Soul of laughter,
 Untouched, unhurt,
 O, sweet! O, bitter!
 My born yet unborn,
 Shadow not fallen
 O, undawning morn—
 O, message unbroken.
 Why, how, when?
 I wait, wait for you,
 O embrace of earth and heaven;
 O, Old! O, New!

[1] "O, Old! O, New!" is the cry of a "Poáti," e. g., a mother's cry to her unborn child. "Poáti" has no precise English synonym.

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