stars when drop and die
no star is lost – rains in sea
still the sea is salt
Adapted from Horace’s ode Diffugere nives (VII) by A. E. Housman published in More Poems, Alfred A. Knopf. 1936.
Stars, I have seen them fall,
But when they drop and die
No star is lost at all
From all the star-sown sky.
The toil of all that be
Helps not the primal fault;
It rains into the sea
And still the sea is salt.
And what does Diffugere nives mean?
One online source states: “one of Horace’s many reflections on the passage of time, the brevity of human life.”
Another states: “an involuntary interpersonal state that involves an acute longing for emotional reciprocation, obsessive-compulsive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and emotional dependence on another person.”
But I paste it into the GOOGLE translate from Latin to English, I get, Run away from the snow.
Ah well, still the sea is salt.
No Haiku For You 