West-Running Brook Songtext
von Williamson
West-Running Brook Songtext
Fred, where is north?
North? North is there, my love
The brook runs west
West Running Brook, then, call it
West Running Brook men call it to this day
What does it think it′s doing running west
When all the other country brooks flow east to reach the ocean?
It must be the brook can trust itself to go by contraries
The way I can with you and you with me
Because we're, we′re, I don't know what we are
What are we?
Young or new
We must be something
We've said we two
Let′s change that to we three
As you and I are married to each other
We′ll both be married to the brook
We'll build our bridge across it
And the bridge shall be our arm thrown over it asleep beside it
Look, look, it′s waving to us with a wave
To let us know it hears me
Why, my dear
That wave's been standing off this jut of shore
The black stream catching on a sunken rock
Flung backward on itself in one white wave
And the white water rode the black forever
Not gaining but not losing
Like a bird white feathers from the struggle of whose breast
Flecked the dark stream and flecked the darker pool
Below the point and were at last driven wrinkled
In a white scarf against the far shore alders
That wave′s been standing off this jut of shore
Ever since rivers I was going to say were made in heaven
It wasn't waved to us
It wasn′t, yet it was
If not to you, it was to me in an annunciation
Oh, if you take it off to ladyland
As 'twere the country of the Amazons
We men must see you to the confines of
And leave you there, ourselves forbid to enter
It is your brook
I have no more to say
Yes, you have too, go on, you thought of something
Speaking of contraries
See how the brook in that white wave runs counter to itself
It is from that in water we were from
Long, long before we were from any creature
Here we in our impatience of the steps
Get back to the beginning of beginnings
The stream of everything that runs away
Some say existence like a pirouette
Forever in one place
Stands still and dances
But it runs away
It seriously, sadly runs away
To fill the abysses void with emptiness
It flows beside us in this water brook
But it flows over us
It flows between us to separate us for a panic moment
It flows between us, over us, and with us
And it is time, strength, tongue, life, light, and love
And even substance lapsing unsubstantial
The universal cataract of death
That spins to nothingness
And unresisted, saved by some strange resistance in itself
Not just a swerving but a throwing back
As if regret were in it and were sacred
It has this throwing backward on itself
So that the fall of most of it
Is always raising a little, ascending up a little
Our life runs down in sending up the clock
The brook runs down in sending up our life
The sun runs down in sending up the brook
And there is something sending up the sun
It is this backward motion toward the source
Against the stream that most we see ourselves in
The tribute of the current to the source
It is from this in nature we are from
It is most us
Today will be the day you said so
No, today will be the day you said the
Brook was called West Running Brook
Today will be the day of what we both said
North? North is there, my love
The brook runs west
West Running Brook, then, call it
West Running Brook men call it to this day
What does it think it′s doing running west
When all the other country brooks flow east to reach the ocean?
It must be the brook can trust itself to go by contraries
The way I can with you and you with me
Because we're, we′re, I don't know what we are
What are we?
Young or new
We must be something
We've said we two
Let′s change that to we three
As you and I are married to each other
We′ll both be married to the brook
We'll build our bridge across it
And the bridge shall be our arm thrown over it asleep beside it
Look, look, it′s waving to us with a wave
To let us know it hears me
Why, my dear
That wave's been standing off this jut of shore
The black stream catching on a sunken rock
Flung backward on itself in one white wave
And the white water rode the black forever
Not gaining but not losing
Like a bird white feathers from the struggle of whose breast
Flecked the dark stream and flecked the darker pool
Below the point and were at last driven wrinkled
In a white scarf against the far shore alders
That wave′s been standing off this jut of shore
Ever since rivers I was going to say were made in heaven
It wasn't waved to us
It wasn′t, yet it was
If not to you, it was to me in an annunciation
Oh, if you take it off to ladyland
As 'twere the country of the Amazons
We men must see you to the confines of
And leave you there, ourselves forbid to enter
It is your brook
I have no more to say
Yes, you have too, go on, you thought of something
Speaking of contraries
See how the brook in that white wave runs counter to itself
It is from that in water we were from
Long, long before we were from any creature
Here we in our impatience of the steps
Get back to the beginning of beginnings
The stream of everything that runs away
Some say existence like a pirouette
Forever in one place
Stands still and dances
But it runs away
It seriously, sadly runs away
To fill the abysses void with emptiness
It flows beside us in this water brook
But it flows over us
It flows between us to separate us for a panic moment
It flows between us, over us, and with us
And it is time, strength, tongue, life, light, and love
And even substance lapsing unsubstantial
The universal cataract of death
That spins to nothingness
And unresisted, saved by some strange resistance in itself
Not just a swerving but a throwing back
As if regret were in it and were sacred
It has this throwing backward on itself
So that the fall of most of it
Is always raising a little, ascending up a little
Our life runs down in sending up the clock
The brook runs down in sending up our life
The sun runs down in sending up the brook
And there is something sending up the sun
It is this backward motion toward the source
Against the stream that most we see ourselves in
The tribute of the current to the source
It is from this in nature we are from
It is most us
Today will be the day you said so
No, today will be the day you said the
Brook was called West Running Brook
Today will be the day of what we both said
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