The Lovers
Hark! away in the woods—for the ears of love are sharp— Stealthily, quietly touched, the note of the one-stringed harp. In the lighted house of her father, why should Taheia start? Taheia heavy of hair, Taheia tender of heart, Taheia the well-descended, a bountiful dealer in love, Nimble of foot like the deer, and kind of eye like the dove? Sly and shy as a cat, with never a change of face, Taheia slips to the door, like one that would breathe a space; Saunters and pauses, and looks at the stars, and lists to the seas; Then sudden and swift as a cat, she plunges under the trees. Swift as a cat she runs, with her garment gathered high, Leaping, nimble of foot, running, certain of eye; And ever to guide her way over the smooth and the sharp, Ever nearer and nearer the note of the one-stringed harp; Till at length, in a glade of the wood, with a naked mountain above, The sound of the harp thrown down, and she in the arms of her love. “Rua,”—“Taheia,” they cry—“my heart, my soul, and my eyes,” And clasp and sunder and kiss, with lovely laughter and sighs, “Rua!”—“Taheia, my love,”—“Rua, star of my night, Clasp me, hold me, and love me, single spring of delight.”
And Rua folded her close, he folded her near and long, The living knit to the living, and sang the lover’s song:
“Night, night it is, night upon the palms. Night, night it is, the land-wind has blown. Starry, starry night, over deep and height; Love, love in the valley, love all alone.”
“Taheia, heavy of hair, a foolish thing have we done, To bind what gods have sundered unkindly into one. Why should a lowly lover have touched Taheia’s skirt, Taheia the well-descended, and Rua child of the dirt?”