Sleeping together ... how tired you were ...
How warm our room ... how the firelight spread
On walls and ceiling and great white bed!
We spoke in whispers as children do,
And now it was I—and then it was you
Slept a moment, to wake—“My dear,
I’m not at all sleepy,” one of us said...
Was it a thousand years ago?
I woke in your arms—you were sound asleep—
And heard the pattering sound of sheep.
Softly I slipped to the floor and crept
To the curtained window, then, while you slept,
I watched the sheep pass by in the snow.
O flock of thoughts with their shepherd Fear
Shivering, desolate, out in the cold,
That entered into my heart to fold!
A thousand years ... was it yesterday
When we, two children of far away,
Clinging close in the darkness, lay
Sleeping together?... How tired you were...
THE QUARREL
Our quarrel seemed a giant thing,
It made the room feel mean and small,
The books, the lamp, the furniture,
The very pictures on the wall—
Crowded upon us as we sat
Pale and terrified, face to face.
“Why do you stay?” she said, “my room
Can never be your resting place.”
“Katinka, ere we part for life,
I pray you walk once more with me.”
So down the dark, familiar road
We paced together, silently.
The sky—it seemed on fire with stars!
I said:—“Katinka dear, look up!”
Like thirsty children, both of us
Drank from that giant loving cup.
“Who were those dolls?” Katinka said.
“What were their stupid, vague alarms?”
And suddenly we turned and laughed
And rushed into each other’s arms.