Albert Ehrenstein. Homer. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

Homer

By Albert Ehrenstein


From “Modern German Poems” Translated by Babette Deutsch and Avrahm Yarmolinsky I SANG the songs of red revenge,
And I sang the stillness of wood-shadowed waters.
But no one companioned me—
Rigid, lonely,
As the locust sings to itself,	5
To myself I sang my song.
Now my steps vanish, grown faint
In the sands of lassitude.
For weariness my eyes are failing me,
I am tired of comfortless fords,	10
Of sea-crossing, of girls, of streets;
At the gulf’s edge I do not remember
The shields and the spears.
Blown upon by birches,
By winds overshadowed,	15
I fall asleep to the sound of a harp
Whose music
Joyfully drips from under another’s fingers.
I do not stir,
For all thoughts and all acts	20
Trouble the limpid eyes of the world.