Do You Not Know..... Poem by Reva Kern

Do you not know
that sweet retreat
At the back of the woods,
a lake to the red stream
Where the large leaves of the palms
Stop the noise of the world
And the effects of the sun?
—Oh, I would want
far from our old villages
Through the savanna
with swaying grass
To follow in a dream
the agile squirrels
To see them jumping
through the moving branches
The crimson macaws and calm Bengalis!

Do you not know
On the far-off beaches
Where no sailors passed
A happy island with smooth breezes
Bunches of leafless flowers on the streams?
—Oh, I would want
alone with my thoughts
Throwing to the wind
The dust of days
To feel my soul
With undulating waves
And to fall asleep on the rhythmic wave
Like an infant who is always rocked!

Do you not know
Far from the cold earth
Up there!Up there!
In the folds of the blue sky
A golden star
A solitary world
Rolling in peace
Under the breath of God?
—Oh, I would want a fair planet
Of new skies
Of strange regions
Where one understands
The way of the wind on the wave
To slip the night under the profound vault,
The brilliant chariot of constellations!

Where to flee?Where to flee?
Under human routes
The sand is hard and the sun is heavy.
My burning mouth dries the fountains
And the tree is dead
Where I have won love.
—Oh, I would want far from time
And from things
Free from all physical bonds
To run joyously
in the metamorphosis
Then plunge myself
Into the source of reason
Where the infinite flows
Into the Eternal!