Free bird that you are, come and sit
In these green boughs beside me and sing
To me the praise of the great lord
Who gave this vast world-so tender and neat.
Come and sit beside me, my lovely,
So that I may lie and watch your
Lithe and graceful figure tranquil and at rest.
Be my muse for this moment-for one so hopeless and lonely.
Sit and sing for me the song of those
Plains that lie beyond those hazy mountain slopes,
The river that flows in silvery moonlit strands
And cuts the bountiful plains abounding with tulips and roses.
Sit down here just beside my windowpane
And adorn yourselves with the quiet camouflage of spring's
Early sprouts, and let me keep time to your hymn
With my banjo and the tapping of the rain.
Come closer, my precious little bird,
And shelter yourselves from the rain and the sun;
Closer still you may come so that I
Can touch those wispy feathers along your girth,
And enjoy with mirth the soundless talk
That ensues between us through these bars
That imprison me day and night, shutting out nature's simple pleasures
That my wretched self etches out in chalk.
Day and night carries on and my self seeks
For the solace of quite comradeship, the pleasures
Of travel, the languid air of dark leasures
And abandoned revels- pleasures equal for both vain and meek.
Now is the time that I have been looking for
Eager with anticipation; come now and deliver me from this
Subdued passivity of existence- it cringes my solitude;
Let me be free now, let me sing through the night air and soar.
Don't get ridiculous now, my pretty fair.
I am honest and I have been earnest all along.
For throughout my life I had been but a mute spectator
Of the follies and pleasures of human life- a recluse fair and square.
You are being very curt and mischievious
To have flown on and off around my cage;
Being naughty in the least, you disturb me
With your seductive visions of grace- both lithe and voluptous.
Do cast aside your look of scorn, I pray.
I beseech thee in my humblest admission
To lend thy kindly light towards me,
This abode of a humble sinner, where once an apostle lay.
