War does the fire no longer burn? (I am so lonely) Why does the tent-door swing outward? (I have no home) Oh, let me breathe hard in your face! (I am so lonely) Oh, why do you shut your eyes to me? (I have no home)
Let us make friends with the stars; (I am so lonely) Give me your hand, I will hold it; (I have no home) Let us go hunting together: (I am so lonely) We will sleep at God’s camp to-night. (I have no home)
He stands in the porch of the World-- (Why should the door be shut?) The grey wolf waits at his heel, (Why is the window barred?) Wild is the trail from the Kimash Hills, The blight has fallen on bush and tree, The choking earth has swallowed the streams, Hungry and cold is the Red Patrol-- (Why should the door be shut?) The Scarlet Hunter has come to bide-- (Why is the window barred?)
He waits at the threshold stone-- (Why should the key-hole rust?) The eagle broods at his side, (Why should the blind be drawn?) Long has he watched and far has he called-- The lonely sentinel of the North-- “Who goes there?” to the wandering soul Heavy of heart is the Red Patrol-- (Why should the key-hole rust?) The Scarlet Hunter is sick for home, (Why should the blind be drawn?)
Heavy of heart is the Red Patrol-- (Why should the key-hole rust?) The Scarlet Hunter is sick for home, (Why should the blind be drawn?) Hungry and cold is the Red Patrol-- (Why should the door be shut?) The Scarlet Hunter has come to bide, (Why is the window barred?)
In the flash of the singing dawn, At the door of the Great One, The joy of his lodge knelt down, Knelt down, and her hair in the sun Shone like showering dust, And her eyes were as eyes of the fawn. And she cried to her lord, “O my lord, O my life, From the desert I come; From the hills of the Dawn.” And he lifted the curtain and said, “Hast thou seen It, the Yellow Swan?”
And she lifted her head, and her eyes Were as lights in the dark, And her hands folded slow on her breast, And her face was as one who has seen The gods and the place where they dwell; And she said, “Is it meet that I kneel, That I kneel as I speak to my lord?” And he answered her, “Nay, but to stand, And to sit by my side; But speak: thou has followed the trail, Hast thou found It, the Yellow Swan?” And she stood as a queen, and her voice Was as one who hath seen the Hills, The Hills of the Mighty Men, And hath heard them cry in the night, Hath heard them call in the dawn, Hath seen It, the Yellow Swan. And she said, “It is not for my lord”; And she murmured, “I cannot tell; But my lord must go as I went, And my lord must come as I came, And my lord shall be wise.”