It was like music:
Hovering and floating there
With the sound of lutes and timbrels
In the night air.
It was like waves,
Beating upon the dhore:
Insistent with a rhythm, a pulsing
Unfelt before.
It was like wind:
Blowing from off the seas
Of other, far other
Lands than these.
It was like wings,
Like whirring wings that fly
The song of an army of swans
On the dark sky.
It was like God:
A presence of blinding ligjt,
Ravishing body and soul
In the Spring night.
I set this to music, with Clive's permission. It formed part of a cantata based on the Finnish carol (in Latin, for Swedish performers) , 'Personent hodie.' It was performed and recorded by the Australian Broadcasting Commission's Adelaide Singers S solo, SSAATTBB, with 2 horns,2 trumpets,2 trombones and 2 percussion from the Adelaide and later WA Symphony Orchestra, for ABC TV and the 1972 Perth Festival. For this poem I used SSA, plus 2 horns and vibraphone. Ralph Middenway, Hobart 2017.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
It was like God: A presence of blinding ligjt, Ravishing body and soul In the Spring night. a very good poem dear poet. tony