Richard Watson Gilder (Ричард Уотсон Гилдер)
The New Day. Part 3. 30. The Sower
I A sower went forth to sow; His eyes were dark with woe; He crusht the flowers beneath his feet, Nor smelt the perfume, warm and sweet, That prayed for pity everywhere. He came to a field that was harried By iron, and to heaven laid bare; He shook the seed that he carried O'er that brown and bladeless place. He shook it, as God shakes hail Over a doomèd land, When lightnings interlace The sky and the earth, and His wand Of love is a thunder-flail. Thus did that Sower sow; His seed was human blood, And tears of women and men. And I, who near him stood, Said: When the crop comes, then There will be sobbing and sighing, Weeping and wailing and crying, Flame, and ashes, and woe. II It was an autumn day When next I went that way. And what, think you, did I see, What was it that I heard, What music was in the air? The song of a sweet-voiced bird? Nay—but the songs of many, Thrilled through with praise and prayer. Of all those voices not any Were sad of memory; But a sea of sunlight flowed, A golden harvest glowed, And I said: Thou only art wise, God of the earth and skies! And I praise Thee, again and again, For the Sower whose name is Pain.
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