| by
T. S. Eliot |
|
| Just the worst time of the year | |
| For a journey, and such a journey: | |
| The ways deep and the weather sharp, | |
| The very dead of winter.’ | |
| And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory, | |
| Lying down in the melting snow. | |
| There were times we regretted | |
| The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces | |
| And the silken girls bringing sherbet. | 10 |
| Then the camel men cursing and grumbling | |
| And running away, and wanting their liquor and women, | |
| And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters, | |
| And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly | |
| And the villages dirty and charging high prices: | |
| A hard time we had of it. | |
| At the end we preferred to travel all night | |
| Sleeping in snatches, | |
| With the voices singing in our ears, saying | |
| That this was all folly. | 20 |
| Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley, | |
| Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation; | |
| With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness, | |
| And three trees on the low sky, | |
| And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow. | |
| Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel, | |
| Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver, | |
| And feet kicking the empty wine-skins. | |
| But there was no information, and so we continued | 30 |
| And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon | |
| Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory. | |
| All this was a long time ago, I remember | |
| And I would do it again, but set down | |
| This set down | |
| This: were we led all that way for | |
| Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly, | |
| We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death, | |
| But had thought they were different; this Birth was | |
| Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death. | 40 |
| We returned to our places, these Kingdoms | |
| But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation | |
| With an alien people clutching their gods. | |
| I should be glad of another death. | |
| Journey
of the Magi — The title refers to the journey the magi (sometimes
called wisemen or kings) took to from the east to see
Jesus’ birth, as described in Matthew (the only one of the gospels
to mention them). Note that nothing in the Bible says there were three
of them; in the Eastern Orthodox church, they number twelve. Also, note
that the singular of magi is magus. |
|
‘A
cold coming we had of it — Eliot takes the opening lines of
the poem from the 1622 nativity sermon by Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626),
a renowned bishop of the Anglican church who played a major role in translating
what became known as the King James Bible. Late in the sermon, Andrewes
describes the magi’s journey: “Last we consider the time of
their coming, the season of the year. It was no summer progress. A cold
coming they had of it at this time of the year, just the worst time of
the year to take a journey, and specially a long journey. The ways deep,
the weather sharp, the days short, the sun farthest off, in solsitio [sic]
brumali, the very dead of winter.” (The quotation marks in the poem
are single because the poem was originally published in England.) |
|