Like to a leaf that is fallen and withered <br />Tossed by the tempest from pole unto pole; <br />Thus roams the pilgrim abroad without purpose, <br />Roams without love, without country or soul. <br /> <br />Following anxiously treacherous fortune, <br />Fortune which, as he grasps at, it flees; <br />Vain though he hopes that his yearning is seeking, <br />Yet does the pilgrim embark on the seas. <br /> <br />Ever impelled by invisible power, <br />Destined to roam from the East to the West; <br />Oft he remembers the faces of loved ones, <br />Dreams of the day when he too must rest. <br /> <br />Chance may assign him a tomb in the dessert, <br />Grant him a final asylum of peace; <br />Soon by the world and his country forgotten <br />God rest his soul when his wanderings cease! <br /> <br />Often the sorrowful pilgrim is envied, <br />Circling the globe like a seagull above; <br />Little, ah, little they know what a void <br />Saddens his soul by the absence of love. <br /> <br />Home may the pilgrims return in the future, <br />Back to his loved ones his footsteps he bends; <br />Naught will he find but the dust and the ruins, <br />Ashes of love and the tombs of his friends. <br /> <br />Pilgrim, begone! Nor return more hereafter, <br />Stranger thou art in the land of thy birth; <br />Others may sing of their love while rejoicing, <br />Thou once again must roam over the earth. <br /> <br />Pilgrim, begone! Nor return more hereafter, <br />Dry are the tears that a while for thee ran; <br />Pilgrim, begone! And forget thy affliction, <br />Loud laughs the world at the sorrows of man.<br /><br />Jann Matthew Papin<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-song-of-the-traveler/
