Courts of Lo Han D . The shivering novice
Lit lonely candles in the gloomy shrines,
Till coming last to those four giant gods,
Guards of the gate, he came upon the Weasel,
Shrinking from the wind.

"Tsang Hao Dze—you!
What do you think to harvest here today?
The feast is over, and the gods will wait
In vain for pilgrim prayers today—and you
For pilgrim charity.'

The Weasel bent

And warmed his hands above the candle flame.
"Hark you, Brother of all the poor," he said,
With impudent gaiety," Since yestereve

I have been through the seven heavens-ay,
And down the back-stairs of the skies again;

In truth, thrown down.-Ay-ya! The feast is over:-
Brother, there is no generosity

Under a single one of all those roofs

You see below there. Brother of all the poor,

Surely there is a little rice and tsai—”

"Come, get you to the kitchen, vagabond,"

The novice laughed. They crossed the rainwet courts.

PRAYER

BY GUY CHARLES CROS

Translated from the French by Edward H. Pfeiffer

My God, to thee this night do I make prayer

For every mortal everywhere

Who hath not known nor youth nor comeliness,
For all whom thy fond touch hath never graced
Who are, alas! poor, tragic caricatures
From whom thy saintly image is effaced.

My God, for all poor mortals I make prayer,
For those whose heart hath never heard the words
That thou thyself hath to thy folk bequeathed,
So beautiful and so profound that they bring tears.

I have asked nought, O Lord, and ask for nothing now, For the divine of earth, for such as we,

Since thou hast given us the universe

With all its forests and its seas,

With all its spring-times pregnant and its storms,
With all its rhythmic laws and diverse men,

With women all so soft to the caress

It seems the verdant charm

Of all that breathes and buds beneath the sun

Is now and then reflected bright in them

The pure and perfect mirrors of the beauty of the world.. But they, the others, God, who are the truly damned, The exiles from thine earthly paradise,

Take pity on them, let their eyes

Remain forever closed unto the light

Nor wake them from the dream that is their life;

Accord to them, at least,

Since all the rest hath been denied,

The sheer impassibility and ignorance

That thou hast given as the lot, my God,

To plants and to beasts,

Our brothers and sisters on the earth, as they!

To thee this night, O Lord, do I make prayer
For every mortal everywhere

Who hath not known nor youth nor comeliness
Nor joy divine nor genius;

For all whom thy fond touch hath never graced,
Who are, alas! poor, tragic caricatures

From whom thy saintly image is effaced.

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Autumn Number

Borga Gard, A Play in Four Acts

By TOR HEDBERG

Dante's "Divina Commedia," Its Moslem Sources
By CHARLOTTE BREWSTER JORDAN

To the White Cross of Savoy

By GIOSUE CARDUCCI

Two Blind Men and a Donkey, A Play for Marionettes
By MATHURIN M. DONDO

(Complete Contents on Inside Cover)

Richard S.Badger, Publisher The Gorham Press The Poet Lore Company 194 Boylston St Boston U

Perfumed Thorns

Juan Ramon Jimenez
Translated from Spanish by Herbert King Stone
Dante's Divina Commedia, Its Moslem Sources and Parallels

374

Anton Chekov, The Master of the Gray Short-Story

POET

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ACT I

Glimming's workroom, the favorite assembly room of the family It is a large, almost square room with a white-washed ceiling and walls covered with old fashioned Chinese tapestry. In the background are two windows. On the wall between these is a shelf containing records bound in blue pasteboard, account books, calendars, and statute books. Glimming's writing-desk stands obliquely between the two windows from which he has a view upon the lawn. In the left corner of the background is a rack on which are found hunting guns, carbines and dragoon-sabres. In the left corner stands a safe.

*Copyright 1921 by THE POET LORE COMPANY