Katherine Mansfield (Кэтрин Мэнсфилд)

The Sea-Child


Into the world you sent her, mother,
Fashioned her body of coral and foam,
Combed a wave in her hair’s warm smother,
And drove her away from home

In the dark of the night she crept to the town
And under a doorway she laid her down,
The little blue child in the foam-fringed gown.

And never a sister and never a brother
To hear her call, to answer her cry.
Her face shone out from her hair’s warm smother
Like a moonkin up in the sky.

She sold her corals; she sold her foam;
Her rainbow heart like a singing shell
Broke in her body: she crept back home.

Peace, go back to the world, my daughter,
Daughter, go back to the darkling land;
There is nothing here but sad sea water,
And a handful of sifting sand.

Katherine Mansfield’s other poems:

  1. The Town Between the Hills
  2. Villa Pauline
  3. Waves
  4. A Joyful Song Of Five
  5. A Little Boy’s Dream

Poems of other poets with the same name (Стихотворения других поэтов с таким же названием):

  • Eliza Cook (Элиза Кук) The Sea-Child (“HE crawls to the cliff and plays on a brink”)

    886




    To the dedicated English version of this website