I made the cross myself whose weight
Was later laid on me.
This thought is torture as I toil
Up life's steep Calvary.
To think mine own hands drove the nails!
I sang a merry song,
And chose the heaviest wood I had
To build it firm and strong.
If I had guessed--if I had dreamed--
Its weight was meant for me,
I should have made a lighter cross
To bear up Calvary.
--Anne Reeve Aldrich.
The unpolished pearl can never shine--
'Tis sorrow makes the soul divine.
--From the Japanese, tr. by Frederic Rowland Marvin.