#137 Dance Figure (Ezra Pound)

 

(via)

DANGE FIGURE

For the Marriage in Cana of Galilee

Dark-eyed, 

O woman of my dreams, 

Ivory sandalled, 

There is none like thee among the dancers, 

None with swift feet.

I have not found thee in the tents, 

In the broken darkness.

I have not found thee at the well-head

Among the women with pitchers.

Thine arms are as a young sapling under the bark; 

Thy face as a river with lights.

White as an almond are thy shoulders; 

As new almonds stripped from the husk.

They guard thee not with eunuchs; 

Not with bars of copper.

Gilt turquoise and silver are in the place of thy rest.

A brown robe, with threads of gold woven in

patterns, hast thou gathered about thee, 

O Nathat-Ikanaie, 'Tree-at-the-river'.

As a rillet among the sedge are thy hands upon me; 

Thy fingers a frosted stream.

Thy maidens are white like pebbles; 

Their music about thee! 

There is none like thee among the dancers; 

None with swift feet.