Fedor Tyutchev

The heart would like to be a star --
Not in a night, when from the darkened skies
These heaven's bodies, like the living eyes,
Look at the sleepy earth so far --

But in a day, when screened, as by a smoke 
Of the ever scorching sunny rods,                                
They burn just brighter -- like the gods --
In the ether, crystalline and stoic.   


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, October, 2000