Detained by the Storm
(Lines composed at Chigura in Awa Province)
1901
At daybreak and in the dusk, in vain,
My aged mother waits for me,
And my four children, my darlings,
Must be mourning my late return.
Thoughts of them fill my heart with pain,
Would I might soar with the heavenly clouds
And behold them once again!
But, being no bird, I am unable to fly.
My restless sleep on a grass-pillow
Whets the woes of a traveller.
To add to my misery, the night is dark
Shrouding the sea and hills in black gloom.
A thousand billows beat the shore;
The rain it rains in ceaseless torrents.
Like to the rippling shoals of a cascade,
My sad thoughts of home increase.
But, unable to turn me round,
I tarry, finding solace in my loving wife
Who will comfort my aged mother
Till the ocean bears me home.