For the Fly-Leaf of a King James Bible

…in dürftiger Zeit
                Hölderlin

      Now, in our needy time,

      These words so flush with hope

Probe at the heart that aches toward the past

      For the god not yet come.

      Cadence and phrase and tone –

      Derived by Jacobean

Divines from Tyndale and from Coverdale,

      Refined – gain resonance.

      A rhythm draws the mind

      Through theirs to older scores:

Lollard and Saxon texts; Latin behind,

      A plainchant barely heard.

      Then Greek, Hebrew, the first

      Utterance of the word

Of one the many tongues have, differently,

      Called ‘God’ with the same thirst.

      This text – new from the press –

      Already smelt of a time

Past, as if left to fust in cellars: earth-

      begrimed, already foxed.

      Now, in our needy time,

      Virtue and beauty seem

In dark, like heady vintage, to mature:

      Full-bodied and obscure.