1
Unknown to me you died,
An old man
Who had cried
On hearing Pan.

2
Beethoven laughed when he saw
A goat with divine ears!
Bach stood in awe,
You in tears.

3
To surprise Hermes’ son,
Unawares, playing!
And to be one who knows
What the notes are saying!

4
Then is our Fate solved!
Yet it seems
Feeling is more involved
Than even dreams.

5
Some were afraid
Of Pan’s ugliness;
Their music has denied
Man’s distress.

6
Some, hearing him play,
Hid in prayer;
Ah! but the Spirit lay
Hidden there!

7
How many have lost
All power over tone
Seeing the nightingale tossed
From his high throne!

8
I -- will be ashamed --
And will fail --
Unlike the defamed
Nightingale.

9
However much one loses
When light grows dim,
He sings as he chooses
And the gods mimic him!

10
Perhaps the merry Pan
Before he was through
Played more of the song of Man
Than he knew.

11
Perhaps you only heard,
Your own birth
Told by a bird
Who had swept near the earth.

12
Perhaps a breath
Of a new song
Telling of your death
Was carried along to me.

13
(Whatever Beauty in Art
One creates,
There dwells, apart,
Truth that irritates.)

14
In some wild place
The answer will be found:
In the god’s face
Or the pipe’s sound.

15
May it soon be my turn
To stumble on my destiny,
And to learn
What awaits me!

Copyright (2006) by Arnold Cantor.
All rights reserved.

[Written shortly after Ernst Bloch’s death on July 15, 1959. He was born July 24, 1880, so he was nearly 79 when he died. His beautiful Schelomo - A Hebrew Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra was often played on public radio, before and after his death, during my stay in Cambridge, Massachusetts.]