Before the Dawn in Beijing

[A Love Affair]

The nights were long, it seemed an era

(All before the dawn in Beijing),

Came youthful smiles, in my magic age

And we who listened to each heartbeat

A sweet compulsion of that sound

The burst, a mighty morning on Beijing;

Then yellow flowers seem to fall (sing):

She was an empire with pains and peaks

I an ocean, and sky above—

The dark was deep, a drowsy soul

Somewhere between reality and sleep,

Tides of Time and matter seeped—

Pure being, freed from memory

Of voices I have never heard,

And dreams and echoes

Nor did I find the light of the star

Before the dawn in Beijing,

Which haunts the hollow past in me…!