Gieb ihr ein Schweigen (c)
Theodore Stephanides
Endymion
(On seeing the Carian Mountains from shipboard; January 1939)
My play-mates call me mad because my gaze
Is ever fixed on vacancy, and I
Am sorrowful when noonday sunbearns blaze
And smile when moonlight glimmers down the sky.
They call me mad because their world to me
Is but a fleeting fancy born of shades,
Of shades that come and go as on the sea
The swirling foam outlines a wave and fades.
They call me mad, the fools! They do not know
That on Her breast I lay one summer night,
And that within my world forever flow
Remembrances of rapture and delight.
The fools! What mean the earth, the sea, the skies,
To me who looked into Her timeless eyes.
(from "Worlds in a Crucible" 1973)
Endymion
(On seeing the Carian Mountains from shipboard; January 1939)
My play-mates call me mad because my gaze
Is ever fixed on vacancy, and I
Am sorrowful when noonday sunbearns blaze
And smile when moonlight glimmers down the sky.
They call me mad because their world to me
Is but a fleeting fancy born of shades,
Of shades that come and go as on the sea
The swirling foam outlines a wave and fades.
They call me mad, the fools! They do not know
That on Her breast I lay one summer night,
And that within my world forever flow
Remembrances of rapture and delight.
The fools! What mean the earth, the sea, the skies,
To me who looked into Her timeless eyes.
(from "Worlds in a Crucible" 1973)