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Travel poetry4

Dr Jose Rizal’s Song of the Wanderer
Canto del Viajero

A dry leaf flies at random
Till it’s seized by a wind so strong
So lives on earth the wanderer
Without a heading, soul, country or love

Troubled, he seeks joy everywhere
But joy is elusive and flees
Like a shadow so vain that mocks his desire
And for which he sails the seas so wide

Impelled by a hand unseen
He shall wander from place to place
Only memories shall keep him company
Of loves and days happier then

Perhaps in the desert he shall find
A tomb, a sweet refuge discovered
But in his country and the world forgotten
Rest in stillness his trials now over

Alas they envy the sorrowed wanderer
As across the earth he is found
Ah! They know not of the emptiness
In his soul where love no longer exists

The pilgrim shall return to his country
To familiar shores perhaps
He shall find only ice and ruins
Loves that withered, graves and nothing more

Go wanderer! In your own country
Now a stranger, always alone
Let others sing of loving
They are the happy but you return
Only to leave now and once more.

Go wanderer, look not back at it all
Nor weep as you leave again
Go wanderer and stifle your sorrows
For the world laughs at another’s pain

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