Monday, September 8, 2014

MARY, BRINGING
THE DESIRE
CALLED JESUS
TO US.... 

Poem for Today - September 8, 2014



JESU, JOY OF MAN'S DESIRING 

(CHORALE FROM CANTATA NO. 147, BY J. S. BACH, 
ARRANGED FOR PIANO BY NIYRA HESS)

Ivory in her black, and all intent
Upon the mirror of her instrument,
Doubling her beauty to the eye and ear,
My Muse arranged this in a distant year.

I thought my longing then could not abide
The discipline to place me at her side
Whose love and art were joined without defect,
Luxurious touch and sway of intellect.

Kore and lady, Myra, downward glancing
Over the hand that sings to the hand dancing,
Breathe and be present now the shades grow still.
Sweet air, be figured at your mistress' will.

As he of Brandenburg hummed in his heart,
The tenor and the alto, part by part,
Mounted in joy amid the tranquil choir
To dwell but tenderly on man's desire.

Softly that note fell, for the baby burning
Under the wintry sign of his sojourning,
The westward star, lay upon Eden's breast
Where husbandman and hunter seek to rest.

So voices woke from every falling voice,
Bidding the Gentile and the Jew rejoice,
With all that generations may conceive,
In Miriam, who is the grace of Eve.

Had she not borne the seed of the Lord God
To ripen in her splendid belly's pod?
And who but sages of the fragrant East
Dared his epiphany, adorned the feast?

And how but in the Cyprian's tongue went round
The tidings of great joy upon that ground
And peaceful glory promised in the air?
Holy became the rose our bodies bear.

So ran Kapellmeister's hymn unending,
So dreamed the maiden on his word attending,
So, as I cherished her in my degree,
The page of ancient music fell to me.

Now life has turned and all seems far and late,
I find this luminous, and meditate
To praise again, though East and West are wild,
The girl, the singing, and the Christmas child.

© Robert Fitzgerald,
The New Yorker Book

Of Poems, pages 351-352

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