or who lifts and drives me, when I may not rest,
or who it is steadies me when I become still.
3 (K-D 29)
I saw a being in wondrous wise
hold its plunder between its horns,
a vessel of light, of shining beauty,
bringing it home, a spoil of battle.
It wished to build a bower in the burg
and cunningly place it —if so might be.
Then a wondrous being came over the roof,
known to all children of mortal men,
recovered the spoil and then brought back
the unwilling exile. Westward it went,10
hurrying home after the battle.
Dust rose to the skies; dew fell on the ground;
night departed and none thereafter
knew its way, whither it went.
Some strange solutions have been proposed, but the correct one is no doubt the monthly contest of Sun and Moon. The plunder is the old moon in the new moon’s arms. The moon would like to make itself a home in the heavens, but the familiar sun comes up and the moon is routed.
4 (K-D 39)
The books tell us that this thing has been
among mankind through many ages
clear and manifest. A special power
it has much greater than any men know.
It wishes to seek all living beings
one by one; then goes its way;
no second night in the same place;
but homeless roves for ever and aye,
the path of exile. It is none the poorer.
