SUNDARARAMAN  IYER

TR. / CIR NO.. 91 / 11  DTD   MAY 21, 2020  -

TOPIC  :   A CONSOLING POEM IN CORONA TIMES  

A  favourite poem of mine since my secondary school days -

EVEN THIS SHALL PASS AWAY - by Theodore Tilton, I have added

my paraphrasing of the poem  at the end to convey the point that the hard times of the Corona  too shall pass away.   

====================

Once in Persia reigned a king,

Who upon his signet ring

Carved a maxim strange and wise,

Which, if held before his eyes,

Gave him counsel at a glance

Fit for every change and chance.

Solemn words, and these were they;

“Even this shall pass away.”

Trains of camels through the sand

Brought him gems from Samarcand;

Fleets of galleys through the seas

Brought him pearls to match with these;

But he counted not his gain

Treasures of the mine or main;

“What is wealth?” the king would say;

“Even this shall pass away.”

‘Amid the revels of his court,

At the zenith of his sport,

When the palms of all his guests

Burned with clapping at his jests,

He, amid his figs and wine,

Cried, “O loving friends of mine;

Pleasures come, but not to stay;

‘Even this shall pass away.’”

Lady, fairest ever seen,

Was the bride he crowned as queen.

Pillowed on his marriage bed,

Softly to his soul he said:

“Though no bridegroom ever pressed

Fairer bossom to his breast,

Mortal flesh is only clay –

Even this shall pass away.”

Fighting in the furious field,

Once a javelin pierced his shield;

Soldiers, with a loud lament,

Bore him bleeding to his tent.

Groaning from his tortured side,

“Pain is hard to bear,” he cried;

“But with patience, day by day,

Even this shall pass away.”

Towering in the public square,

Twenty cubits in the air,

Rose his statue, carved in stone.

Then the king, disguised, unknown,

Stood before his sculptured name,

Musing meekly: “What is fame?

Fame is but slow decay;

Even this shall pass away.”

Struck with palsy, sere and old,

Waiting at the Gates of Gold,

Said he with his dying breath,

“Life is done, but what is Death?”

Then, as answer to the king,

Fell a sunbeam on his ring,

Shown by a heavenly ray,

“Even this shall pass away.”

–Theodore Tilton

----------------------------------------------------------

My paraphrase suitable to surrent times -

While science and reason fails to find,

A medicine for the Corona kind ;

As the world wonders in fear and dismay,

What terrible plague has come to stay,

Nature has an answer to every plague,

Else all of life would land in grave ;

The divine will shall prevail and sway,

Corona times too shall pass away. 

------------------------------------------ 

Sundararaman Iyer

Mumbai