The Return of a Captain

The Return of a Captain

I am an old man,
I have wandered a long time
Changing under the changing moon.
I did not guess I would end
On the seashore without a friend
But I am content.

I know the ways of the wind.
It blows this way and that way
In the changeable mind
Until the will snaps like a hinge.
One time fortune made me cringe.
Reeds are wise, reeds bend.

I am no longer proud.
I have returned as often in dream
To the point from which I set out.
In the ship's shade I smile;
After all, it was worth while.
Like the oar, the oarsman is bent.

Young men laugh at death,
Love is their golden fleece.
Old men go back to the earth.
They return what they have taken
To grass-root and bracken.
What is there to lament?

Here by the Argo's prow,
The Branch of Dodona
Nods to me now:
Men and boughs break;
Praise life while you walk and wake;
It is only lent.