The Hollow Way in the Dark Wold > This: The Supplement
The Hollow Way in the Dark Wold > This: The Supplement
1
Now will the sun so bright go up
as if no ill-luck had starred the night:
ill-luck coming just to me alone
while the sun shines down for all.
You must not enfold the night within
you must sink it in eternal light.
A little lamp extinguished in my tent:
then welcome around the bright joy outside.
2
Now I see well why such a flame
sprayed to me in your glancing eyes.
Eyes! as if, round the full in such a glance
to draw up your whole force together.
But I didn't guess, for I sank in a mist
Delusion!
that already the glance had sent itself home
where all vision springs.
You wanted to say to me in your light
we would gladly stay near but cannot.
Just look at us, for soon we shall be gone:
what will be eyes in the day
next night are stars.
3
When your Mummy steps to the door inside
& I turn my head, to look at her
my glance falls not upon her face
but the spot just by the door
where a dear little face always used to be
when your brightness slipped inside with her
as always, my little daughter.
When your Mummy steps to the door inside
in the candle's gleam it seems as if
you still come scurrying behind
as it always was out of the dark
O you, your father's little spark, too quick
in the night again.
4
I often think they've just gone out
& they'll soon return back home.
The day is bright — O don't feel afraid —
they are just on a long walk together.
Of course, they've only just gone out
& will soon return back home.
O don't feel afraid — the day is bright —
they are just on a walk to the hills.
They are just walking on ahead
& don't want to return again back home.
We'll collect them on those hills in sunlight.
The day is already bright there.
5
In this weather, at this time
I would never have sent the chi1dren out:
but someone has taken them.
I wasn't allowed at all
to say anything to this:
in this weather, in this tumult
I would never have let the children out
for fear they would fall ill.
There's no point in considering that.
In this weather, in this trouble
I would never have let the children out
for fear they would die tomorrow.
There is no sense in thinking that.
In this weather, in this horror
I would never have sent the children out
but someone has taken them:
I wasn't allowed at all
to say anything to this.
In this weather, in this tumult, in this horror
they rest, they are resting
as if in their father's house
frightened by no storm
by God's hand covered.
They rest as if in their father's house
in the darkness outside.
6
Just at dawn the moon vanished. The poem
pierced her. She fell into the sea.
The poem grows perfect within its search:
it could find nothing, nothing.
You stand on the salt mud & wave:
it isn't mist but evening again.
Each hope must go out:
then the textures of this place shine.
No more writing now —
to negate a gone devotion
& evaporate into the night
& then another night & day again.
Say nothing more: No one is lost —
no more sorrow: see it is empty here —
just us two together. Isn't that enough?
Then we'll walk to those bright hills together.
in the darkness outside of safety
the darkness outside of being alone
nothing fixed in this but nothing
being moving open to this alone.
7
You are enclosed in an ocean of thick sweet light
possibility falling back into the womb
to flood out clotted like blood or memory
or old music heard badly once again.
