Observations placeholder
Twenty five Chinese poems - Winter - Old Many Battled Sea
Identifier
012707
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
OLD MANY BATTLED SEA
The wind is asleep, and the whole of the sea
lies dead in the calm of the night.
Not a voice can be heard, not a sound ;
for the land, as the sea lies dead.
Between the two great eyes of the boat,
at the prow, there is one red light;
I muse by the sail, and the stars are
above my head.
Fierce-eyed and enormous the spirits of
those who were heroes in battles
of old
Come forth in the death of the night
and, rejoicing again to be free,
With brandishing weapons and terrible
helmets and armour of sable and gold
They stride with inaudible steps on the
field of the sea.
Hither and thither the fires of the phosphor
glimmer and vanish. The sound
Of bells in a temple afar floats fluttering
out on the deep.
What hour is it, then ? There is nothing
but darkness and silence above and
around.
It is not yet near to the dawn, and the
wind is asleep.