Sa Karobo mai

The sun incarnadine in the west Throws stark against his fiery orb The palm fronds weaving to and fro In serried grandeur, row on row Along the purpling shores.

Now cooling zephyrs breathe upon the land As rose-tipped night-wrack steal across the sky Trailing their shadows o’er the slumb’rous seas Where, like tired travellers in the even ing breeze, White sails pause, and go by.

The hills in purple silence stand Aloof and hear the breezes sigh— Kissing the pools that lie along the shore Clear in the white moon’s slow unfold ing flower Like starry fragments fallen from the sky.

In sullen splendour wanes the long warm day; And Viti dons the sable shawl of night, As, soothed by songs of silent stealing streams Her troubled thoughts all now displaced by dreams, She sleeps—secure from all affright.

Cpg

-“Sa Karobo Mai” is Fijian for ‘‘lt is getting dark.”