Nikolay Gumilev

I know: to the trees, but not to us, 
Perfection of the life is given, whole.
And on the Earth – the sister of the stars –
We live in exile, while they do at home. 

In latest falls, in sad and empty fields,
The red-brass dawns and amber-clad sunrises         
Teach to the hues, dissolved in thinnest films,
These people – green and free forever masses.

Moses exists among these oaks, tall,
And Mary, too – among the palms for ages … 
Their souls send to the others quiet calls
With waters, run in darkness, void of edges.  

While polishing and brushing stony gems,
And grinding rocks, the springs babble in a chore:
They sing a song, or mourn a broken elm,
Or praise the leaves, which dressed a sycamore.  

Oh, if I might be ever blessed to find
The place, where, lost of singing and bewailing,  
I would rise silently up to the heaven height
For the millenniums, unending.  


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, May, 2000
Edited by Dmitry Karshtedt, December, 2000