A yellow flower (Light and spirit)
sing by itself for nobody.

A golden spirit(Light and emptiness)
sings without a word by itself.

Let no one touch this gentle sun
in whose dark eye
someone is awake.

(No light, no gold, no name, no color)
And no thought:
O, wide awake!)

A golden heaven
sings by itself
a song to nobody.

Where are the merchants
and the money-lenders
Whose love sang in the wires
between the seaports
and the inland granaries?

Is the old trader any safer
than the sailor sent to drown
Crossing the world's end
in a wooden schooner?

Where are the generals who
sacked the sunny cities
And buried the cattle and the grain?
Or is the politician any safer
in his offices
Than a soldier shot in the eye?

Take time to tremble
lest you come without reflection
To feel the furious mercies
of my friendship,
(Says death) because
I come as quick as intuition.

Cliffs of your hangovers were
never half so dizzy as
my infinite abyss:
Flesh cannot wrestle with the waters
that are in the earth,
Nor spirit rest in icy clay!

More than the momentary night of faith,
to the lost dead,
Shall be their never-ending midnight:

Yet all my power is conquered
by a child's "Hail Mary"
And all my night forever lightened
by one waxen candle!