Gieb ihr ein Schweigen (c)
Theodore Stephanides
Book Lover's Time Travel
I love rereading Sherlock Holmes,
Or Kim, or Allan Quatermain;
They waft me to a younger world
In which I am a boy again.
I read - and glimpse beyond the page
A garden I alone can see,
Where I am sitting, bool in hand,
Beneath a flowering cherry-tree.
Or else I hear a winter storm
Against the windows lash and hail,
And I am crouched before a fire
And book-unmindful of the gale.
Mnemonic Tomes! Each line I scan
Brings back a picture from the past
As vividly as if impressed
Upon the type when it was cast.
I read - and know again the thrill
I felt upon a distant day
Now sixty years astern in Time
And countless miles in Space away!
(from "Worlds in a Crucible" 1973)
Book Lover's Time Travel
I love rereading Sherlock Holmes,
Or Kim, or Allan Quatermain;
They waft me to a younger world
In which I am a boy again.
I read - and glimpse beyond the page
A garden I alone can see,
Where I am sitting, bool in hand,
Beneath a flowering cherry-tree.
Or else I hear a winter storm
Against the windows lash and hail,
And I am crouched before a fire
And book-unmindful of the gale.
Mnemonic Tomes! Each line I scan
Brings back a picture from the past
As vividly as if impressed
Upon the type when it was cast.
I read - and know again the thrill
I felt upon a distant day
Now sixty years astern in Time
And countless miles in Space away!
(from "Worlds in a Crucible" 1973)