Page:The plumed serpent - 1926.djvu/476
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472
THE PLUMED SERPENT
“No!” said Kate. “I shall sit here in the garden a while, before I come up.”
“Then I will leave open the door,” said the man, “and you can come up when you will.”
Kate sat on a seat under a big tree. A creeping plant, with great snake-like cords and big sulphur-and-brown trumpet flowers, hung above. She listened to the singing. It was Ramón, teaching one of the singers.
Ramón had not a very good voice. He sang quietly, as if to the inner air, with very beautiful, simple expression. But Kate could not catch the words.
“Ya?” said Ramón, when he had finished.
“Ya, Patron!” said the man, the singer.
And he began, in his strong, pure voice that caught at the very bowels, to sing another of the Hymns.
“My way is not thy way, and thine is not mine.
But come, before we part
Let us separately go to the Star,
And meet there.
But come, before we part
Let us separately go to the Star,
And meet there.
I do not point you to my road, nor yet
Call: “Oh come!”
But the Star is the same for both of us,
Winsome.
Call: “Oh come!”
But the Star is the same for both of us,
Winsome.
The good ghost of me goes down the distance
To the Holy Ghost.
Oh you, in the tent of the cloven flame
Meet me, you I like most.
To the Holy Ghost.
Oh you, in the tent of the cloven flame
Meet me, you I like most.
Each man his own way forever, but towards
The hoverer between;
Who opens his flame like a tent-flap,
As we slip in unseen.
The hoverer between;
Who opens his flame like a tent-flap,
As we slip in unseen.
A man cannot tread like a woman,
Nor a woman step out like a man.
The ghost of each through the leaves of shadow
Moves as it can.
Nor a woman step out like a man.
The ghost of each through the leaves of shadow
Moves as it can.