INDIAN LOVER'S HYMN
Sea-Song and Storm-Song
And drums of the night,
Drums of love's footfall beating through the dark;
Wind of my pulse and a breaking tide,
And my cry the one note, the one note,
Piercing the sky like a star over thee
O See-Gooltha maq-ha-ten-tle,
See-Gooltha with the two high breasts!
I am come as a river between hills,
Meeting the sea among cliffs—
O Waters surging to Waters in the monotoned might of the war-chant,
With the sod sounding back,
And thy voice—! sweet to the hunter's ear
Is the shrill arrowed hawk before the wind!
O See-Gooltha maq-ha-ten-tle,
Thy kiss opens the dark
And the moon unfolds in thine eyes.
Thunders of breaking day
Long foaming surf-lines of light
Sweep the morning beaches,
Blown by winds that march and sing:
Tall winds, with hunters' feet, swift and trackless,
Scattering the light from Kunaë's
* eyes
And the laughter from his mouth—
Red is love's glory on the forest
As a slain moose.
O See-Gooltha maq-ha-ten-tle
I arise from thy heart,
My lips lift, from thy kiss,
Flame-bright wings of new desire spreading to the Sun.
Give thy hand and leap with me o’er thy threshold to the Good Ground!
Run with cool palm to palm pressed, breasts beating,
Thighs by fleet thighs flashing, down the white swaying shore.
Brown feet and crags and trampling pines,
Tread to the sound,
Of Sea-Song and Storm-Song
And Drums of the Dawn!
