To a child dancing to a harmonica

TO A CHILD DANCING IN THE WIND

by: W. B. Yeats (1865-1939)

DANCE there upon the shore;
What need have you to care
For wind or water's roar?
And tumble out your hair
That the salt drops have wet;
Being young you have not known
The fool's triumph, nor yet
Love lost as soon as won,
Nor the best labourer dead
And all the sheaves to bind.
What need have you to dread
The monstrous crying of wind?


There is a young girl here, about the age of 3 who just came to Mae Sot with her mother from the Burma-China border. She is one of my new favorite living beings. We play this game where I play the harmonica and she dances, then she plays and I dance. She is quite likely the funniest most determined individual.