The Inviolable
Sunlight and shadow on the polished floor
Thrown by the bamboo curtains at the door.
Quiet brown dusk elsewhere folding close
The faint gold pillars, lacquered offering-stands,
The lotuses and incense, and above,
Amida Buddha with symbolic hands.
His head is weary with its orbèd thought
Beginningless and endless as the tide.
Woman, pray not upon the polished floor—
What can it mean to him a child has died?
Gladness and sorrow are but light and shade
The bamboo curtains at his door have made.
Thrown by the bamboo curtains at the door.
Quiet brown dusk elsewhere folding close
The faint gold pillars, lacquered offering-stands,
The lotuses and incense, and above,
Amida Buddha with symbolic hands.
His head is weary with its orbèd thought
Beginningless and endless as the tide.
Woman, pray not upon the polished floor—
What can it mean to him a child has died?
Gladness and sorrow are but light and shade
The bamboo curtains at his door have made.
