Book XXVI: Passage to India:

[from verse 5]

O vast Rondure, swimming in space,
Cover'd all over with visible power and beauty,
Alternate light and day and the teeming spiritual darkness,
Unspeakable high processions of sun and moon and countless stars above,
Below, the manifold grass and waters, animals, mountains, trees,
With inscrutable purpose, some hidden prophetic intention,
Now first it seems my thought begins to span thee.

Down from the gardens of Asia descending radiating,
Adam and Eve appear, then their myriad progeny after them,
Wandering, yearning, curious, with restless explorations,
With questionings, baffled, formless, feverish, with never-happy hearts,
With that sad incessant refrain, Wherefore unsatisfied soul? and Whither O mocking life?

Ah who shall soothe these feverish children?
Who Justify these restless explorations?
Who speak the secret of impassive earth?
Who bind it to us? what is this separate Nature so unnatural?
What is this earth to our affections? (unloving earth, without a throb to answer ours,
Cold earth, the place of graves.)

Yet soul be sure the first intent remains, and shall be carried out,
Perhaps even now the time has arrived.

After the seas are all cross'd, (as they seem already cross'd,)
After the great captains and engineers have accomplish'd their work,
After the noble inventors, after the scientists, the chemist, the geologist, ethnologist,
Finally shall come the poet worthy that name,
The true son of God shall come singing his songs.

[from verse 8]

O we can wait no longer,
We too take ship O soul,
Joyous we too launch out on trackless seas,
Fearless for unknown shores on waves of ecstasy to sail,
Amid the wafting winds, (thou pressing me to thee, I thee to me, O soul,)
Caroling free, singing our song of God,
Chanting our chant of pleasant exploration.

O soul thou pleasest me, I thee,
Sailing these seas or on the hills, or waking in the night,
Thoughts, silent thoughts, of Time and Space and Death, like waters flowing,
Bear me indeed as through the regions infinite,
Whose air I breathe, whose ripples hear, lave me all over,
Bathe me O God in thee, mounting to thee,
I and my soul to range in range of thee.

O Thou transcendent,
Nameless, the fibre and the breath,
Light of the light, shedding forth universes, thou centre of them.

Swiftly I shrivel at the thought of God,
At Nature and its wonders, Time and Space and Death,
But that I, turning, call to thee O soul, thou actual Me,
And lo, thou gently masterest the orbs,
Thou matest Time, smilest content at Death,
And fillest, swellest full the vastnesses of Space.

Greater than stars or suns,
Bounding O soul thou journeyest forth;

[from verse 9]

Away O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!
Cut the hawsers -- haul out -- shake out every sail!

Reckless O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me,

Sail forth -- steer for the deep waters only,
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

O my brave soul!
O farther farther sail!
O daring joy, but safe! are they not all the seas of God?
O farther, farther, farther sail!

Boek XXVI: Oversteek naar Indië:

[uit vers 5]

O reusachtige Bol, drijvend in de ruimte,
geheel bedekt met zichtbare kracht en schoonheid,
afwisselend licht en dag en de wemelende spirituele nacht,
onbeschrijfelijk hoge processies van zon en maan en ontelbare sterren boven,
beneden het veelsoortige gras en water, dieren, bergen, bomen,
met een ondoorgrondelijk doel, een of ander verborgen profetische zin,
het lijkt of mijn denken je nu pas begint te bevatten.

Uit de tuinen van Azië schitterend naar beneden dalend,
verschijnen Adam en Eva, dan hun ontelbare telgen na hen,
zwervend, onverzadigbaar, nieuwsgierig, met woelige ontdekkingsreizen,
met vragen, verbijsterd, plomp, koortsachtig, met nooit blij gemoed,
met dat treurige, onophoudelijke refrein, Waarom ontevreden ziel? en Waarheen o wrang leven?

Ach wie zal die koortsachtige kinderen troosten?
Wie de woelige ontdekkingsreizen rechtvaardigen?
Wie het geheim van de emotieloze aarde uitspreken?
Wie het aan ons verbinden? wat is  deze zo onnatuurlijke afzonderlijke Natuur?
Wat is deze aarde voor onze affecties? (liefdeloze aarde, zonder hartklop om de onze te beantwoorden,
koude aarde, de plaats van de graven.)

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Voor de volledige vertaling van "A Sea Symphony" klik hier