CUERVO - Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia

PARACELSUS
" Of red earth from whose sides strange trees grow out,
" Past tracks of milk-white minute blinding sand,
" Till, by a mighty moon, I tremblingly
" Gathered these magic herbs, berry and bud,
" In haste-not pausing to reject the weeds,
" But h appy plucking them at any price.
" To me, who have seen them bloom in their own soil,
" They are scarce lovely : plait and wear them, you I
" And guess, from what they are, the springs that fed­
" The stars that sparkled o'er them, night by night,
" The snakes that travelled far to sip their dew I "
Thus for my higher loves; and thus even weakness
'Would win me honour. But not these alone
Should claim my care; for common life, its wants
And ways, would I set forth in beauteous hues:
The lowest hind should not possess a hope,
A fear, but Pd be by him, saying better
Than he his own heart's language. I would live
For ever in the thoughts I thus explored,
As a discoverer's memory is attached
To all he finds : they should be mine henceforth,
Imbued with me, though free to all before;
For clay, once cast into my soul's rich mine
Should come up crusted o'er with gems : nor this
Would need a meaner spirit, than the first:
Nay, 'twould be but the selfsame spirit, clothed
In humbler guise, but still the selfsame spirit­
As one spring wind unbinds the mountain snow,
And comforts violets in their hermitage.
But master, poet, who hast done all this,
How didst thou 'scape the ruin I have met?
Didst thou, when nerving thee to this attempt,
Ne'er range thy mind's extent, as some wide hal1,
Dazzled by shapes that filled its length with light,
Shapes clustered there to rule thee, not obey­
That will not wait thy summons, will not rise
Singly, nor when thy practised eye and hand
Can well transfer their loveliness, but crowd
By thee for ever, bright to thy despair ?
Didst thou ne'er gaze on each by turns, and ne'er
Resolve to single out one, though the rest
Should vanish, and to give that one, entire
In beauty, to the world; forgetting, so,
Its peers, whose number baffies mortal power?
And, this determined, wert thou ne'er seduced
By memories, and regrets, and passionate love,
To glance once more farewell? and did their eyes
Fasten thee, brighter and more bright, until
Thou couldst but stagger back unto their feet,
©Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia
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