Yearning - Anonymous

Happy name; I you, my brethren, who, not ever doomed to roam.
In the Eternal Father's mansion from the first have dwelt at home.

Round the Father's throne for ever standing, in his countenance
Sunning you, you see the seven circling heavens around you dance.

Me he has cast out to exile, in a distant land to learn
How I should love him the Father, how for that true country yearn.  

I lie here, a star of heaven, fallen upon this gloomy place,
Scarce remembering what bright courses I was once allowed to trace.

Still in dreams it comes upon me that I once on wings did soar
But, or ere my flight commences, this my dream must all be o'er.

When the lark is climbing upward on the sunbeam, then I feel
Even as though my spirit also hidden pinions could reveal.

I, a rose-bush, to this lower soil of earth am fastly bound.
And, with heavenly dew besprinkled, still am rooted to the ground.

Yet the life is struggling upward, striving still, with all their might.
Yearning buds their cups to open to the warmth and heavenly light.

From its stalk released, my flower soars not yet, — a butterfly
But meanwhile my fragrant incense evermore I breathe on high.

From this gloomy land of vapors, where the hurricanes surprise.
Lightning scorches, and hail lashes, and the thunder terrifies,

By my Gardener to his garden I shall once transplanted be,
There where I have been already written from eternity.

O my brothers, blooming yonder, unto him the Ancient pray,
That the hour of my transplanting he will not for long delay.

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Anonymous (pre 19th century) Iraq
Translated by Richard Chenevix Trench.
Source: Songs of the soul: gathered out of many lands and ages, Samuel Irenaeus Prime, Robert Carter and Brothers, 1874