Dance Figure


Robert Henri
Julianita

Robert Henri
Julianita Ready for the Dance

Dance Figure
For the Marriage in Cana of Galilee

Dark eyed,

O woman of my dreams,
Ivory sandalled,
There is none like thee among the dancers,
None with swift feet.
I have not found thee in the tents,
In the broken darkness.
I have not found thee at the well-head
Among the women with pitchers.
Thine arms are as a young sapling under the bark

Thy face as a river with lights.
White as an almond are thy shoulders;

As new almonds stripped from the husk.
They guard thee not with eunuchs;
Not with bars of copper.
Gilt turquoise and silver are in the place of thy rest.

A brown robe, with threads of gold woven in
patterns, hast thou gathered about thee,
O Nathat-Ikanaie, 'Tree-at-the-river'.
As a rillet among the sedge are thy hands upon me;

Thy fingers a frosted stream.
Thy maidens are white like pebbles;

Their music about thee!
There is none like thee among the dancers;

None with swift feet.

~ Ezra Pound ~