Norwid

Norwid

NARCISSUS 

1
Narcissus, reflecting a satisfied face, 
Cried, "Let everyone note :
As I am supreme, so is Greece." 
Thereupon Echo spoke, 

2 "These nymph haunts, this lake, 
And the depths of saphire slopes 
Are not solely from your Greece,
But - from light, clouds and mists... 

3
"Your shape, note, how shimmering, 
Though you gaze in a crystal pool 
Reflexion comes from the distant sun ,
Only the deep is your constant home ." 

Beauty

BEAUTY 

...God sees all 
"How can
God's eye endure ugliness all round ?"
If you wish to know, with an artist's eye 
Look closely at a ruin, at cobwebs
In sunlight, at matted straw 
In fields, at potter's clay - 
- He gave us all, even His traces,
As He perceives things, have no envy, have no shame! 
Yet there is sun-gilded Pride
Convinced the sun will not shine through her; 
She is the end of sight and contemplation,
She is the screen against God's rays,
So that man, the most ungrateful creature in the world, 
Should feel extinguished brightness and night in his eyes 
- In every art let all arts gleam, save the one
Through which the work is to be done.