I Died For Beauty
"I Died for Beauty" - Illya Shambat
I died for beauty – twas my choice
To end my life this way;
In every note of her voice
Was universe at play:
Twas sparkling, shining, shimmering,
Twas elegant and bright,
In it the world was glimmering
As I then held her tight.
I died for beauty – as I did
My lifeforce to her went
And from the shackles it her freed
To live by her intent:
She needed lifeforce to be strong
And then to carry on
With universe to get along
And sing again her song.
I died for beauty, so it lives,
Is by me fertilized,
Shimmers and glimmers and conceives
And is now realized,
And though I died, what it gave birth
Was better than was I,
And now is set upon her course
To grow and multiply.
I died for beauty – twas my choice
To end my life this way;
In every note of her voice
Was universe at play:
Twas sparkling, shining, shimmering,
Twas elegant and bright,
In it the world was glimmering
As I then held her tight.
I died for beauty – as I did
My lifeforce to her went
And from the shackles it her freed
To live by her intent:
She needed lifeforce to be strong
And then to carry on
With universe to get along
And sing again her song.
I died for beauty, so it lives,
Is by me fertilized,
Shimmers and glimmers and conceives
And is now realized,
And though I died, what it gave birth
Was better than was I,
And now is set upon her course
To grow and multiply.
Comments (4)
I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.
He questioned softly why I failed?
"For beauty," I replied.
"And I for truth - the two are one;
We brethren are," he said.
And so, as kinsmen met a-night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.
From the window I saw the horses.
I was in Berlin, in winter. The light
had no light, the sky had no heaven.
The air was white like wet bread.
And from my window a vacant arena,
bitten by the teeth of winter.
Suddenly driven out by a man,
ten horses surged through the mist.
Like waves of fire, they flared forward
and to my eyes filled the whole world,
empty till then. Perfect, ablaze,
they were like ten gods with pure white hoofs,
with manes like a dream of salt.
Their rumps were worlds and oranges.
Their color was honey, amber, fire.
Their necks were towers
cut from the stone of pride,
and behind their transparent eyes
energy raged, like a prisoner.
There, in silence, at mid-day,
in that dirty, disordered winter,
those intense horses were the blood
the rhythm, the inciting treasure of life.
I looked. I looked and was reborn:
for there, unknowing, was the fountain,
the dance of gold, heaven
and the fire that lives in beauty.
I have forgotten that dark Berlin winter.
I will not forget the light of the horses.