[Still sings the mocking-bird:] Loud! loud! loud! Loud I call to you, my love! High and clear I shoot my voice over the waves, Surely you must know who is here, is here, You must know who I am, my love. Low-hanging moon! What is that dusky spot in your brown yellow? O it is … More Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking VIII

[The mockingbird sings:] Soothe! soothe! soothe! Close on its wave soothes the wave behind, And again another behind embracing and lapping, every one close, But my love soothes not me, not me. Low hangs the moon, it rose late, It is lagging–I think it is heavy with love, with love. O madly the sea pushes … More Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking VII

Yes my brother I know, The rest might not, but I have treasur’d every note, For more than once dimly down to the beach gliding, Silent, avoiding the moonbeams, blending myself with the shadows, Recalling now the obscure shapes, the echoes, the sounds and sights after their sorts, The white arms out in the breakers … More Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking VI

Yes, when the stars glisten’d, All night long on the prong of a moss-scallop’d stake, Down almost amid the slapping waves, Sat the lone singer wonderful causing tears. He call’d on his mate, He pour’d forth the meanings which I of all men know. –W.W. Axé.

Till of a sudden, May-be kill’d, unknown to her mate, One forenoon the she-bird crouch’d not on the nest, Nor return’d that afternoon, nor the next, Nor ever appear’d again. And thenceforward all summer in the sound of the sea, And at night under the full of the moon in calmer weather, Over the hoarse … More Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking IV

Shine! shine! shine! Pour down your warmth, great sun! While we bask, we two together. Two together! Winds blow south, or winds blow north, Day come white, or night come black, Home, or rivers and mountains from home, Singing all time, minding no time, While we two keep together. This was what the mockingbirds sang. … More Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking III

Once Paumanok, When the lilac-scent was in the air and Fifth-month grass was growing, Up this seashore in some briars, Two feather’d guests from Alabama, two together, And their nest, and four light-green eggs spotted with brown, And every day the he-bird to and fro near at hand, And every day the she-bird crouch’d on … More Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking II

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking, Out of the mocking-bird’s throat, the musical shuttle, Out of the Ninth-month midnight, Over the sterile sands and the fields beyond, where the child leaving his bed wander’d alone, bareheaded, barefoot, Down from the shower’d halo, Up from the mystic play of shadows twining and twisting as if they … More Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking I

The lamplight shines on my sleeplessness, My mind clear, I smell the splendid incense. Deep in the night, the hall rears up high, The wind stirs, and gold is heard to clank. The black sky masks the springtime court, To the pure earth clings a hidden fragrance. The Jade Rope wheels round and is cut, … More Poetry from Chang’an: Du Fu