" Vos plaudite!" th' imperial Roman said
To them that stood around his dying bed.
To those I love, who after me shall live,
This be my message — " Pity, and forgive!"

Beautiful darling!
Light of mine eyes!
Gay as the starling
Shoots thro' the skies;

Swift as the swallow, and
Soft as the dove;
Hopeless to follow, and
Maddening to love!

Ah when she dances! and
Ah when she sings!
Glamour of glances, and
Rush as of wings, —

Trill as of coming birds
Heard unaware, —
Poise as of humming-birds

Lo if a man, magnanimous and tender,
Lo if a woman, desperate and true,
Make the irrevocable sweet surrender,
Show to each other what the Lord can do, —

Each, as I know, a helping and a healing,
Each to the other strangely a surprise,
Heart to the heart its mystery revealing,
Soul to the soul in melancholy eyes, —

Where wilt thou find a riving or a rending
Able to sever them in twain again?
God hath begun, and God's shall be the ending,
Safe in His bosom and aloof from men.

I love the time of Autumn's fading groves;
For with the sere and yellow leaf appears
A dreamy sadness, that my spirit loves,
And loves the more with my departing years.
How soft the light that lies on all the scene,
How sweet the stillness of the hazy noon,
When first succeed to Summer's living green
The Autumn splendors. Then the glorious moon
Sails in a purer heaven, and bright stars shed
A blessed radiance on the paths of men:
And they who walked with timid steps in dread
Of fell disease, at length breathe free again.

While sunset stains the windows of the west
In parting glory drest,
Ere yet the evening star leads in the hours
That hush all voices in their leafy bowers
Save the lone bird's that shuns the light;
Ere in the burning chamber of the night
With sacramental rite
Of dewdrops on the cerements of the flowers
Its burden dropped, its sins confessed
Our long drawn day is laid at length at rest
We, flung together as the seeds are thrown
The sower's hand has strown,
But clinging as the iron sands that feel

Beautiful streamlet by my dwelling side,
I love thy shining sands, thy banks of grass;
I love to see thy silver water pass,
Hurrying beneath the willow boughs to hide.
Thy nursing springs are in the forest shade,
Moss-bank and rock, brown trunk and ancient tree,
Woodbirds and wild flowers are thy company,
Until thou glitterest in the open glade.
Thou wert my playmate in my early days;
I built cascades and tiny bridges then;
Now thoughtfully on thy green banks I gaze,
And thy bright current, gushing through its glen,

Though I (try to) hide it,
My love
Ends by showing in my face,
To such an extent that people ask
" Are you thinking about something"?

Do not pluck me,
Plucking me is too unfair.
I'm a willow near the pond by the Qu River,
this man broke me, that man plucked me:
Each one's love lasted only a moment.

Drop by drop and drip by drip, rain on the winding banks,
Pair by pair and one by one, mandarin ducks chatter.
Lush, lush, the fragrance of wild flowers,
Soft, soft, the yellow of the golden willow-threads
Lovely, lovely, the girls on the river,
Two by two, dancers beside the stream
Bright, bright, the gleam of silk and gauze robes,
Dainty, dainty, the adornments of cloud hair and cosmetics.

My love —
If you care to know (its quantity),
Count the number
Of the waves which may be approaching
The sea-shore at Tago.