What the last evening will be like by Edward Hirsch
and
Psalm 107:23-27, 29-30
What the last evening will be like
You're sitting at a small bay window
in an empty café by the sea.
It's nightfall, and the owner is locking up,
though you're still hunched over the radiator,
which is slowly losing warmth.
Now you're walking down to the shore
to watch the last blues fading on the waves.
You've lived in small houses, tight spaces—
the walls around you kept closing in—
but the sea and the sky were also yours.
No one else is around to drink with you
from the watery fog, shadowy depths.
You're alone with the whirling cosmos.
Goodbye, love, far away, in a warm place.
Night is endless here, silence infinite.
Text by Edward Hirsch used by permission, What the Last Evening Will Be Like, from The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems, 1975-2010 (Alfred A. knopf, 2010)
Psalm 107:23-27, 29-30
23 Qui descendunt mare in navibus facientes operationem in aquis multis
[They that go down to the sea in ships, doing business in the great waters:]
24 Ipsi viderunt opera Domini et mirabilia eius in profundo
[These have seen the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.]
25 Dixit et stetit spiritus procellae et exaltati sunt fluctus eius
[He said the word, and there arose a storm of wind: and the waves thereof were lifted up.]
26 Ascendunt usque ad caelos et descendunt usque ad abyssos anima eorum in malis tabescebat
[They mount up to the heavens, and they go down to the depths: their soul pined away with evils.]
28 Et clamaverunt ad Dominum cum tribularentur et de necessitatibus eorum eduxit eos
[And they cried to the Lord in their affliction: and he brought them out of their distresses.]
29 Et statuit procellam eius in auram et siluerunt fluctus eius
[And he turned the storm into a breeze: and its waves were still.]
30 Et laetati sunt quia siluerunt et deduxit eos in portum voluntatis eorum
[And they rejoiced because they were still: and he brought them to the haven which they wished for.]
