The Melody of the Goddess

The sun has set...!
And the hem of the horizon has gone black...!
And melancholy has let down her mysterious curtains over the face of the universe...
And the arms of stillness have stretched out to embrace silent nature...!
And the clouds have moved on slowly... delicately... tracing the phantoms of the distant past...
While before them the specters of day have melted away...
As a whisper melts away...!

♦

The goddess of sorrows took up...
her silver lyre...
and walked with her dazed steps...
toward the stillness of solitude and the splendor of dream...!
And in the field of melancholy...
the goddess cast down the staff of wandering...
and flung herself into the arms of the darkness...
in her heart a throbbing, and in her eye a question...
A stray tear glittered in her eyes...
and a bewildered sigh hovered upon her lips...

She raised her lyre to her beating breast...
and bent over it, pouring out to it her moaning and her plaint...
whispering into its mellow strings...
the throbbing of her heart and her secret confiding...!
And the lyre gave forth the eternal melody...
and its whispers were faint... soft...
in their faintness magic and enchantment...
and in their softness splendor and sweetness...!

And the breeze carried the tune, broken and sweet...
and the moon clasped it to his heart...
and gave it, of his pallor, delicacy and clarity...
so that it was bewitching as the night...
pale as the moon...
dazed as solitude...!

And the melody went on with its whisperings...
and flew, veiled by the darkness...
toying with hearts and stealing into thoughts...!
The poet heard it in his seclusion...
and a shiver ran through his heart...
And the beautiful one hearkened to it in her chamber...
and sent up a sigh from her heart...
And the melody vanished with the morning...
And when the second evening came...
it began sending out its magic whispers...
now mingled with the poet's fancy...
and the feelings of the beautiful one...!
And the melody returned once more...
to the field of melancholy...
where fancy had brought it forth...!
And the goddess of sorrows hearkened to it...
possessed by enchantment...
and bewitched by beauty...!
She could not believe it was her melody...
which she had composed but yesterday...
into which she had put a piece of her heart...
and an essence of her soul...!
The tune was heavenly...
and the goddess was at a loss...
what should she name her living melody...!
She wants for it a heavenly name...
because it is heavenly...!
She wants to make it immortal...
because it speaks of immortality...!
And she raised two moistened eyes to the moon...
asking him...
And the moon smiled absently...
and sent his pale beam...
to the far hem of the horizon...
And in the sprawling expanse...
the goddess read, in letters of silver:
Pain... Hope...!!!