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prayer of columbus - alberto garcía demestres lyrics

a batter’d and wreck’d old man
thrown on this savage shore, far far from home
pent by the sea and dark rebellious brows, twelve dreary months
sore, stiff with many toils, sicken’d and nigh to death
i take my way along the island’s edge
venting a heavy heart

i am too full of woe!
haply i may not live another day;
i cannot rest o god, i cannot eat or drink or sleep
till i put forth myself, my prayer once more to thee
breathe, i bathe myself once more in thee, commune with thee
report myself once more to thee

thou knowest my years, my entire life
my long and crowded life of active work, not adoration merely;
thou knowest the prayers and vigils of my youth
thou knowest my manhood’s solemn and visionary meditations
thou knowest i have in age ratified all those vows and strictly kept them
thou knowest i have not once lost faith nor ecstasy in thee
in shackles, prison’d, in disgrace, repining not
accepting all from thee, as duly come from thee

all my empires have been fill’d with thee
my speculations, plans begun, and carried on in thoughts of thee
sailing the deep or journeying the land for thee;
intentions, purports, aspirations mone, leaving results to thee
o, i am sure they really come from thee
the urge, the ardor, the unconquerable will
the potent, felt, interior command, stronger than words
a message from the heavens whispering to me even in sleep
these sped me on
by me and these the work so far accomplish’d
by me earth’s elder cloy’d and stifled lands uncloy’d, unloos’d
by me hemispheres rounded and tied, the unknown to the known

the end i know not, it is all in thee
or small or great i know not — haply what broad fields, what lands
haply the brutish measureless human undergrowth i know
transplanted there may rise to stature, knowledge worthy thee
haply the swords i know may there indeed be turn’d to reaping*tools
haply the lifeless cross i know, europe’s dead cross, may bud and blossom there

one effort more, my altar this bleak sand;
that thou o god my life has lighted
with ray of light, steady, ineffable, vouchsafed of thee
light rare untellable lighting the very light
beyond all signs, descriptions, languages;
for that o god, be it my latest word here on my knees
old, poor, and paralyzed, i thank thee

my terminus near
the clouds already closing in upon me
the voyage balk’d the course disputed, lost
i yield my ships to thee
my hands, my limbs grown nerveless
my brain feels rack’d, bewilder’d
let the old timbers part, i will not part
i will cling fast to thee, o god, though the waves buffet me
thee, thee o god at least i know
is it the prophet’s thought i speak, or am i raving?
what do i know of life? what of myself?
i know not even my own work past or present
dim ever*shifting guesses of it spread before me
of newer, better worlds, their mighty parturition
mocking, perplexing me

and all these things i see suddenly, what mean they?
as if some miracle, some hand divine, unseal’d my eyes
shadowy vast shapes smile through the air and sky
and on the distant waves sail countless ships
and anthems in new tongues i hear saluting me

- alberto garcia demestres lyrics

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