Songs from Vagabondia/Launa Dee
LAUNA DEE.
Weary, oh, so wearyWith it all!Sunny days or dreary—How they pall!Why should we be heroes,Launa Dee,Striving to no winning?Let the world be Zero’s!As in the beginningLet it be!
What good comes of toiling,When all’s done?Frail green sprays for spoilingOf the sun;Laurel leaf or myrtle,Love or fame—Ah, what odds what spray, sweet?Time, that makes life fertile,Makes its blooms decay, sweet,As they came.
Lie here with me dreaming,Cheek to cheek,Lithe limbs twined and gleaming,Brown and sleek;Like two serpents coilingIn their lair.Where’s the good of wreathingSprays for Time’s despoiling?Let me feel your breathingIn my hair.
You and I together—Was it so?In the August weatherLong ago!Did we kiss and fellow,Side by side,Till the sunbeams quickenedFrom our stalks great yellowSunflowers, till we sickenedThere and died?
Were we tigers creepingThrough the gladeWhere our prey lay sleeping,Unafraid,In some Eastern jungle?Better so.I am sure the snarlingBeasts could never bungleLife as men do, darling,Who half know.
Ah, if all of life, love,Were the living!Just to cease from strife, love,And from grieving;Let the swift world pass us,You and me,Stilled from all aspiring,—Sinai nor ParnassusLonger worth desiring,Launa Dee!
Just to live like liliesIn the lake!Where no thought nor will is,To mistake!Just to lose the humanEyes that weep!Just to cease from seemingLonger man and woman!Just to reach the dreamingAnd the sleep!