THE TRUMPET lies in the dust. The wind is weary, the light is dead. Ah the evil day! Come, fighters, carrying your flags, and singers, with your war-songs! Come, pilgrims of the march, hurrying on your journey! The trumpet lies in the dust waiting for us. I was on my way to the temple with my evening offerings, seeking for a place of rest after the day's dusty toil: hoping my hurts would be healed and the stains in my garment washed white, when I found thy trumpet lying in the dust. Was it not the hour for me to light my evening lamp? Had not the night sung its lullaby to the stars? 0 thou blood-red rose, my poppies of sleep have paled and faded! I was certain my wanderings were over and my debts all paid when suddenly I came upon thy trumpet lying in the dust. Strike my drowsy heart with thy spell of youth! Let my joy in life blaze up in fire. Let the shafts of awakening fly through the heart of night, and a thrill of dread shake blindness and palsy. I have come to raise thy trumpet from the dust. Sleep is no more for me-my walk shall be through showers of arrows. Some shall run out of their houses and come to my side-some shall weep. Some in their beds shall toss and groan in dire dreams. For to-night thy trumpet shall be sounded. From thee I have asked peace only to find shame. Now I stand before thee-help me to put on my armour! Let hard blows of trouble strike fire into my life. Let my heart beat in pain, the drum of thy victory. My hands shall be utterly emptied to take up thy trumpet.
I CANNOT remember my mother, only sometime in the midst of my play a tune seems to hover over my playthings, the tune of some song that she used to hum while rocking my cradle. I cannot remember my mother, but when in the early autumn morning the smell of the shiuli flowers floats in the air, the scent of the morning service in the temple comes to me as the scent of my mother. I cannot remember my mother, only when from my bedroom window I send my eyes into the blue of the distant sky, I feel that the stillness of my mother's gaze on my face has spread all over the sky.
