Quotations

Dans c'métier-là, faut rien chercher à comprendre.

Rene Benjamin Alak's Song

Where are you going,
Naïa?
Through the still noon--
Where are you going?

To hear the thunder of the sea
And the wind blowing!--
To find a stormy moon to comfort me
Across the dune!

---Why are you weeping,
Naïa?
Through the still noon--
Why are you weeping?

Because I found no wind, no sea,
No white surf leaping,
Nor any flying moon to comfort me
Upon the dune.

---What did you see there,
Naïa?
In the still noon--
What did you see there?

Only the parched world drowsed in drought,
And a fat bee, there,
Prying and probing at a poppy's mouth
That drooped a-swoon.

---What did you hear there,
Naïa?
In the still noon--
What did you hear there?

Only a kestrel's lonely cry
From the wood near there--
A rustle in the wheat as I passed by--
A cricket's rune.

---Who led you homeward,
Naïa?
Through the still noon--
Who led you homeward?

My soul within me sought the sea,
Leading me foam-ward:
But the lost moon's ghost returned with me
Through the high noon.

---Where is your soul then,
Naïa?
Lost at high noon--
Where is your soul then?

It wanders East--or West--I think--
Or near the Pole, then--
Or died--perhaps there on the dune's dry brink
Seeking the moon.