Poems By Arjava

Fore speech

BEFORE the sun goes down

And the dark's waterfall

Swarthily sprinkles quiet

Beyond recall,

Bestow one just true thought

For these words not overlong

(Night knows no countervailing,

Nor any song).

Firedrake

A flinder of old folklore

Tells of a shooting star,

How wishes of a man who spies it

No ill-haps mar.

Since hearing of that legend

Each firedrake that I see

Goes fraught with wishes for your thriving

And supremacy.

O would that through your life's welkin

I like the star could slide,

Twine for each breath and every heart-beat

Joys that abide;

Then to the limbo and ending

I should speed forth content,

An arrow that had not gone wide of target

From bow not vainly bent.