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Page 1 of 11903 · PDF PAGE 4
INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR. Yokohama, April, 1901. It has often been pointed out how strange are the prophecies made from time to time by writers of what purports to be merely fiction. Of all the remarkable tales with which Mr. R. Kipling has delighted the world, none is more striking than that of McIntosh Jellaludin and his mysterious manuscript. And now, only a few years after reading that incredible tale, I myself, at Yokohama, come across a series of circum- stances wonderfully analogous. But I will truth- fully set down this history just a…
1903 · PDF PAGE 20
27th—38th days.—The voyage takes ten days, after four of which a day is “ lost,” evidently on the 180th degree. The time exactly corresponds to that occupied by the fast steamers from Hawaii to Japan, and I think we may assume that that island is the one where the affair began. This is confirmed by a punning allusion to Diamond Head in the 27th day. This becomes perfectly clear if we accept the Editor’s conjecture “hula” for the indecipherable word in the 9th day. It is presumed that they landed in Yokohama, as the following day they visit Kama…
1903 · PDF PAGE 37
Her stature waves, as if a flower Forgot the evening breeze, But heard the charioted hour Sweep from the farther seas, And kept sweet time within her bower, And hushed mild melodies. So grave and delicate and tall— Shall laughter never sweep Like a moss-guarded waterfall Across her ivory sleep ? A tender laugh most musical ? A sigh serenely deep ? She laughs in wordless swift desire A soft Thalassian tune ; Her eyelids glimmer with the fire That animates the moon ; Her chaste lips flame, as flames aspire Of poppies in mid-June. 15
1903 · PDF PAGE 114
…lan ? Must I move upward in the stream of Man, God-ward : my life as Christ to sacrifice, As Buddha to repress : to grow so wise, Space, time shall lie within my finger-span ? I know not which I wish : either I can ; Not both, unless all meditation lies. I am not sure : if love as great as ours May not be God to part of us at least, Leaving the Rest to find its heights and powers In other spheres ; that, night’s enamoured priest ; This, on the lake the dewy lotus-flowers That lift their jewelled hearts toward the East. 94
1903 · PDF PAGE 101
…t : prescience of next year, The springtide ; may the Minotaur appear, Prodigious offspring of the fatal graft ? The worst has happened. Time must now discover What love had hidden from the wittol’s eyes (What hate may tell him if he read my song, If he be subtle : not if he be wise) In our despair came laughter to my lover : “ All’s well as yet. I calculated wrong.” 81
1903 · PDF PAGE 77
…st, Still thinking I was master of my heart : Saying, “ Another month to be a man, Another month to kiss her and be kissed, And then—all time to Magic and to Art !” 57
1903 · PDF PAGE 95
THE THIRTY-FIFTH DAY “ I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it, but adieu.” King Henry V. The third time bitterly came reason back. Is it a fault in love when mornings find The soul grown sober and rethroned the mind ? Or is it mere necessity to track The candid chequer cross-wise to the black, And love, not mutable, yet well inclined To take his pleasure in becoming blind After such sight mere day is wont to lack. So we were angry with ourselves and said We would not kiss—two days, and we would part. And she prayed heaven that she might be dea…
1903 · PDF PAGE 83
Two faces and two bosoms, breathing slowly In tune and time with the sea’s hymn below, Breathing in peace of love, mighty and holy, Fearing to fuse, and longing—be it so ! And the world’s pulse stops, as God bends him lowly To hear and know. . . . . . . . For not the heights of heaven shall exalt her Whose heart is full of love’s dumb deity, Nor harp-strings lift me, nor the sound of psalter, Whose love is merged and molten into thee, Nor incense sweeter be by shrine or altar For you and me. . . . . . . . But like dove’s eyes where glamour lies…
1903 · PDF PAGE 98
…H DAY “ By long and vehement suit I was seduced To make room for him in my husband’s bed.” King John. Mortals are not for nectar all the time : Ambrosia feeds not men ; nepenthe’s sip Is only for a moment : then we dip Back to the earth and leave the bed sublime, And tune our kisses to a terrene rhyme. So, once again before we left the ship With right good will our bodies cling and slip, And the life’s flame sinks as the kisses climb. There never has been such a supreme kiss Since heaven and earth began to be as this ! Doubt nothing of it ! yet…
1903 · PDF PAGE 12
… in a great curse. The hoarse anger of drunken harlotry snarled back. “ Not a drop more,” shouted my friend, adding many things*. It was time for my return. “ I will let them know,” I whispered. “ Good- bye.” “ ‘ There is not one thing with another ; But Evil saith to Good : ‘ My brother—’ ” he went on unheeding. I left him to his peace. My re-appearance restored harmony. The * The substance of his remarks, and subsequent adven- tures are detailed in my “ Three Screams at Mid- night.”—ED.
1903 · PDF PAGE 108
…ng comfort in a babe beyond belief. God would not curse and bless us to such measure ; We were not sad enough nor glad enough ! A little time of misery and pleasure ; Pain strangling half the ecstasy thereof— Such all our gain, who gained the utmost treasure, Gift of the wizard wand and cup of love. 88
1903 · PDF PAGE 81
THE TWENTY-SIXTH DAY “ I think the devil will not have me damned. . . . he would never else cross me thus.” Merry Wives of Windsor. This time she set her will against my will ; Swore that she would not come : in my despair I half believed her an enchantress fair Cruel as hell and dowered with subtle skill To strain my life out with her love, and kill My soul with misery : suddenly a rare Swift smile set shimmering all the ambient air, And then I knew she was my true love still. She would not come ? Why, were Hell’s portals fast Shut, as to Orph…
1903 · PDF PAGE 52
…void of my love’s dear light, And stole acursed to the endless night, Forgotten (as I trust) by God : no beam Of memory lighting it down Time’s dark stream. I dreamt : my shrine was broken and my might Defiled, and all my Gods abased, in sight Of all blind Heaven exenterate and extreme. The foulest traitor of all womankind I ever knew, became my friend* : unclean Sexual abominations floated through, More foul because a golden cord did wind Unspotted through that revel epicene, The pure faith of one woman that was true. * This circumstance was l…
1903 · PDF PAGE 76
…But I must also feel it as a man ! ” Note. Eheieh is the Hebrew for “ I am that I am.” Its numerical value is 21. I was not aware at the time that this was the 21st day. 56
1903 · PDF PAGE 6
of old-time Athens than to the Imperial Peripatetics of the Daily Telegraph and Mr. Raven-Hill, her looks of fire turned my friend’s silky and insipid moustache into a veritable Burning Bush. But puppy endearments are of little interest to one who has just done his duty by No. 9 in distant Yoshi- wara ; so turned to the conversation of our dirty old Irish hostess, who, being drunk, grew more so, and exceedingly entertaining. Of the central forces which sway mankind, her knowledge was more comprehensive than conven- tional. For thirty years she …
1903 · PDF PAGE 18
…at the head ; others are still obscure unless a clear under- standing of, and sympathy with, the man’s position (and the woman’s) at the time be ever xv
1903 · PDF PAGE 22
writing round her, perfectly conscious all the time of the shame of it all, and filled with an eternal inner laughter. We have heard what a woman he married in the end. Our poet is one of the most annoying in the world. His fiftieth day is an outrage on mankind in its sudden and hideous close. He himself feels it, and writes the two following sonnets to discuss (and so to modify) the hateful impression. But through pig-headedness, or in very despair, he leaves the detestable fact standing, the very instant after the lovers part, as ugly and mea…
1903 · PDF PAGE 21
believe.* The man is at once the most truthful writer and the most consummate liar of all time. He selects truth or falsehood without the slightest moral sense or idea of advantage; he asks himself “ Which is humorous ?” and acts accordingly. He chose his love deliberately, I am quite sure, with reference to his art alone. But if our Editor’s conjecture as to the real cause of his death is right, the fire he played with burnt him at last, and he died of the love he had invoked in play. It is the old-story of the magician strangled by the devil.…