ONCE only by the garden gate Our lips we joined and parted.

I must fulfil an empty fate And travel the uncharted.

Hail and farewell! I must arise, Leave here the fatted cattle, And paint on foreign lands and skies My Odyssey of battle.

The untented Kosmos my abode, I pass, a wilful stranger:

My mistress still the open road And the bright eyes of danger.

Come ill or well, the cross, the crown, The rainbow or the thunder, I fling my soul and body down For God to plough them under.