Page:Darío - Eleven Poems.djvu/39

Therefore to be sincere is to be strong.
Bare as it is, what glimmer hath the star;
The water tells the fountain's soul in song
And voice of crystal flowing out afar.

Such my intent was,—of my spirit pure
To make a star, a fountain music-drawn,
With horror of the thing called literature—
And mad with madness of the gloam and dawn.

Of the blue twilight, such as gives the word
Which the celestial ecstasies inspires,
The haze and minor chord,—let flutes be heard!
Aurora, daughter of the Sun,—sound, lyres!

Let pass the stone if any use the sling;
Let pass, should hands of violence point the dart.
The stone from out the sling is for the waves a thing;
Hate's arrow of the idle wind is part.

Virtue is with the tranquil and the brave;
The fire interior burneth well and high;
Triumphant over rancor and the grave,
Toward Bethlehem—the caravan goes by!

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