(1)
I am no volume made by scholars
You will not see in me a single gesture
Towards the wisdom of some other source:
I'm light not heavy thin not fat
I was created in two weeks by a fool
Who filled me with his lilies and his weeds
You need not memorize a single line
Just read me at your ease
And piecemeal fashion like a child
Who builds houses out of cards and blows
them down.
I was created out of pleasure and of pain
No thought guided me beyond vague necessity
No rule need guide you but your whim.
(2)
Who would mourn the ones who strove for power?
Who light candles for the arrogant?
I would not regret the death of tyrants
Only a slave of slave would miss his master.
Would you weep the death of a cold woman
Or sigh in memory of a brutish father?
When a shadow is lifted, or a curtain raised
And all the world both now, before and hence
To bright imagination is displayed
They will recall at best of these
The golden curls, the lively brain
And fondly think when gossip's tongue is still
Only upon the words which silenced pain.