song of the green

if thro' green fountain, clear of thought

there be the medicine of age,

then may I forget,

all the injustice of my falsehood,

"that I have ever lived, and is to ever live on

parched is the water, not the salt

the seas stretch on, and the land form itself unformed

upon a scale, the Man's lack of solitude weighed unmourned."

let then minister the drug of forgetfulness,

let I thought, me-thought:

"I am a lonely boat,

upon the river I've sailed.

the river that is not the stream of lake, nor sea.

but the stream of erstwhile shiny moon..."

under the moon let me forgive,

that only this one man in this earth and ocean,

has at the end, here nothing to take joy in, nor grieve.

if thro' green fountain, clear of thought.

let me walk, the moon tonight's beautiful. I've forgotten.

the woods are silent, the hills are unwizened,

the herbage flat.

the field parted with colours & perfume, and let thaw the hoary frost..

t'is young at the night, let me walk; upon a bad trail let me walk.

"i am been evicted,

of this world."

Drink the fountain once, then one forgets the age.

Twice, then ceased are all pain and sweetness, happiness and disease.

Three times, then even moonlight one forgets; without a lantern--

where goes the empty soul?

on this dim road alone; sound of oar's effort,

but t'was to drive away from my walk----not towards, nor propelling me.

let me walk. I will be forgot.

drink the fountain green four times, and the stars told their sin.

mountains sickened, surface of river rises.

heaven swallows itself into a concealed pit-abyss.

drink five times, then let the world--

be drunk, be sick, be happy, be dim and woe-ridden...

be immortal, let the world drink the Hourai's green fountain-soup...

let immortal be the world. I shall, I shall, I will...

to be evicted therefrom-----the deathless universal cloud....

eternity is uplifted from my sight, and then that sudden moonless emptiness arriving within a sake cup.

is a secret only I and she knows.