28                                      
ici1.11hLiber 7, Cap. V, recomp leading 14.5



  1.  O my beautiful God!  I swim in Thy heart like a trout in the mountain torrent.

  2.  I leap from pool to pool in my joy; I am goodly with brown and gold and silver.

  3.  Why, I am lovelier than the russet autumn woods at the first snowfall.

  4.  And the crystal cave of my thought is lovelier than I.

  5.  Only one fish-hook can draw me out; it is a woman kneeling by the bank of the stream.  It is she that pours the bright dew over herself, and into the sand so that the river gushes forth.

  6.  There is a bird on yonder myrtle; only the song of that bird can draw me out of the pool of Thy heart, O my God!

  7.  Who is this Neapolitan boy that laughs in his happiness? His lover is the mighty crater of the Mountain of Fire.  I saw his charred limbs borne down the slopes in a stealthy tongue of liquid stone.

  8.  And Oh! the chirp of the cicada!

  9.  I remember the days when I was cacique in Mexico.

10.  O my God, wast Thou then as now my beautiful lover?

11.  Was my boyhood then as now Thy toy, Thy joy?

12.  Verily, I remember those iron days.

13.  I remember how we drenched the bitter lakes with our torrent of gold; how we sank the treasurable image in the crater of Citlaltepetl.

14.  How the good flame lifted us even unto the lowlands, setting us down in the impenetrable forest.