The Ruined Tower

The Ruined Tower

After Li Po

Here by the moonlit ruined tower,
The men of old sang such farewells
A ghost of music yet enspells
This keen stillness chilled with the moon.

Their thought still breathes here, night and noon.
Large pond-lilies, spring by spring,
Crimson globed and creamy blue,
Loll on the old moat-waters clear,--
Olden will and dream aflower.

And now the white moon shines anew
On farewells said here, and distills
New curious witchcraft o'er these hills,--
Beauty pricked and tinged with pain.

Thought endureth, year on year.
Whispering, low-perishing,
Here as long as autumns wane,
Night by night the winds will sing
Our farewells through the wan bamboo.

The Theosophical Path, July 1925