Walt Whitman: The learn´d astronomer
Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892): Leaves of Grass (1855 - 1892)
Hvis vi lader forstanden møblere universet, så kommer vi til at bo et meget trist sted. Tørre facts er der ikke megen poesi i.
Digtere kan have deres grunde til at mene, at sindet er det bedste observatorium.
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
