Music is silenced, the dark descending slowly br Has stripped unending skies of all companions. br Weariness grips your limbs and within the locked horizons br Dumbly ring the bells of hugely gathering fears. br Still, O bird, O sightless bird, br Not yet, not yet the time to furl your wings. br br br It's not melodious woodlands but the leaps and falls br Of an ocean's drowsy booming, br Not a grove bedecked with flowers but a tumult flecked with foam. br Where is the shore that stored your buds and leaves? br Where the nest and the branch's hold? br Still, O bird, my sightless bird, br Not yet, not yet the time to furl your wings. br br Stretching in front of you the night's immensity br Hides the western hill where sleeps the distant sun; br Still with bated breath the world is counting time and swimming br Across the shoreless dark a crescent moon br Has thinly just appeared upon the dim horizon. br -But O my bird, O sightless bird, br Not yet, not yet the time to furl your wings. br br br From upper skies the stars with pointing fingers br Intently watch your course and death's impatience br Lashes at you from the deeps in swirling waves; br And sad entreaties line the farthest shore br With hands outstretched and crooning 'Come, O come!' br Still, O bird, O sightless bird, br Not yet, not yet the time to furl your wings. br br br All that is past: your fears and loves and hopes; br All that is lost: your words and lamentation; br No longer yours a home nor a bed composed of flowers. br For wings are all you have, and the sky's broadening countryard, br And the dawn steeped in darkness, lacking all direction.