John Masefield: On Reading "Bridge to Heaven" (1942)

On Reading The Bridge of Heaven  《天桥》written by 熊式一

by John Masefield Oct. 15th, 1942

To Ta Tung, as a boy,

This hope gave gentle joy,

To plant, in some green close,

A plum-tree or white rose,

That, so, in Spring or June

The lamp of the full Moon

Might show to Man the flower

White, in its whitest hour,

That, those who came to seek,

Would whisper: "Will she speak

This Wonder? Will she bless

Our woes to nothingness?

Will she descend the green

Sweet sprays, and be our Queen?

Our Saviour Queen? O, still ...

She moves... She will."

Then, growing-up, be found

No garden-close, no ground,

In all wide China's space

To be a planting-place.

Instead, an iron will

To learn to kill, and kill

The tangle of the weeds

That thwart men's needs.

Thus is Man's youth today,

An April without May,

A May without a June,

Night without Moon.

But Hope from thwarted lives

In unquenched beauty strives

Slowly its glimmer breaks

The darkness of mistakes.

So many million flames

Will burn away the shames;

Ta Tung will surely find

His plot of Peace of Mind;

His blossomed plum will lift

White as the snow in drift,

Under a Moon of Peace

In skies like the still seas.