The glistening river is softly sighing,

And one star listens only...

While I, in the shadow lying,

Sigh too, for my love so lonely.

Be still. The bleeding night is in suspense,

Of watchful agony and coloured thought,

And every beating vein and trembling sense,

Long-tired with time, is pitched and overwrought,

And for the eye, the darkness holds strange forms,

Soft movements appear on the ground, and I see wicked glows;

That wait and peer. The whole black landscape swarms,

With shapes and colours that we try to define,

And for the ear, a sound , a pause, a breath,

A distant hurried footstep moving fast,

The hand has touched the slimy face of death,

The mind is raking at the ragged past,

.....A sound of fire power screams thunders from all directions,

And startled orders move from mouth to mouth.