Beside the Fireplace
The fireplace burnt out,
A shadow drowned the room…
With arms upon his chest
He stood there, stood alone.
While staring straight ahead,
His face a frozen mask,
So bitterly he spoke
And sadness was his guest...
“I've reached so deep inside
Then still-uncharted lands,
Ahead my caravan would ride,
Eight dozen ceaseless days,
Past chains of monstrous mountains,
Through forest-realms… and even:
Across far cities, tall and strange,
Which called while we were dreaming.
And more than once, through silent nights,
Above our camps wild howls would rise.
And so we'd chop the lumber,
And we would dig the moats;
Then, in the evening ambience,
The lions would come forth.
But our souls have shed their fat:
The banes of fools and cowards…
And we would shoot those lions down,
But aim between the eyes.
And once I found all by myself,
Dug up with just my own two hands,
An age-old church that sang to me
From deep beneath the desert sands.
And also, there’s famous river –
That runs from sea to beaming sea –
And, why, this ancient snaking river
Received its modern name from me.
And then within the land of lakes,
The five of its large local tribes
All took me for a wiser man,
Still honor laws which I designed.
But, these days, I am growing weak,
As if I'm reigned by kings of sleep.
And now my soul, for once, is ill,
Oh yes, it's turning deathly sick.
For to its core it's been infused
By morbid essence of some fear,
And, though alive, I am entombed
Within these stifling four walls here;
Here neither water’s playful splash,
Nor a long rifle’s noble shine,
Could help me shed my shrinking coils,
Rip-up this deadly chain of mine…”
And hiding evil triumph
So deeply in her eyes,
The woman in the corner
Would listen to his plight.
“I’ve mocked myself twice over...”
I’ve mocked myself twice over
So foolish became I
By fancying that except you
There's something in this life.
So simple in white garments -
A goddess in old peplums -
I see you hold a crystal sphere
In thin and translucent fingers.
While all the oceans, mountains all,
The humans, angels, flowers –
Reflect within the crystal
Of un-soiled see-through eyes.
How strange to think that in this world
Just one thing lives but you;
That I'm more than a nightly song
A sleepless song of you.
A light around your shoulders burns,
A bright light that would blind.
It dances in long flaming tongues:
Two wings of burning gold!
- 1921
“Upon the distant star named Venus...”
Upon the distant star named Venus
All hearts burn hard with golden flames!
And on far Venus... Ah! On Venus
The trees all dress in azure leaves.
There wild-rung waters rush by fair
From waterfalls, from rivers, geysers;
All sing at noon from freedom’s ballads
And nightly, lamp-like, flow in flames.
But on far Venus... Ah! Upon my Venus
There are no words for hurting or for ruling,
And on fair Venus angels talk in private
In an old tongue composed of noth but vowels.
Know that it means a promise brimmed with joy,
If they should utter “ee-a” or “a-ee”.
While “ao” and “uo” – from ancient Edens blow
A golden-splattered lofty memory.
And on that Venus... Ah! Upon my Venus
There is no death, so astringent and musky.
And if somebody perishes on Venus –
They get transformed into bright heaven’s vapors.
And these gold smoke-souls do forever wander
Within the blue, the deep blue nightly groves;
Or else, a group of ever-joyful pilgrims,
They’re paying visits unto living worlds.
- 1921
“After many years...”
(A dialogue between reunited lovers)
− After many years I've at last returned.
Though an exile I am still
And I'm being watched.
- I've awaited you
All these lengthy years!
For this love of mine
Doesn't know of distance.
- In an alien land
Did my life pass by.
How they stole my life
Didn't notice I.
- Meanwhile, my life
Was a sweeter thing.
I've awaited you,
Watched you in my dreams.
Death is in my home
And yours too it's found. -
Matters not this death
When we are as one.
- 1921
Existence
I don't despair that someone's dropped
The shroud that once hid nature all,
That ancient woods, the gray-haired seas
Don't hide their nyads, harbor fauns.
I know that desert winds sound out
With perfectly inhuman speech,
And not a human tiredness
Is heralded by coming eves.
Oh no, within these slow, inert
Metamorphoses of existence
An immortality for mortals
Is guaranteed by founding words.
Oh poet, you alone wield power
To understand that frightful language,
Which once the sphinxes spoke out-loud
In circles of draconic lords.
Become a thing, what once was Godly,
Exclaim as if in prophets' tones,
So that the earthly sphere that birthed you
Would shudder spinning on its stalk.
- 1919
The Knight of Happiness
How easy is this world to breath in!
Do tell me, who's at odds with life,
And tell me, who is breathing heavy,
I'll fill each one with joy and pride.
So let him come and I will tell him
About the girl with greenish eyes,
About the deep blue morning darkness
That's pierced by poems and by light.
Oh, let him come!And I must tell him;
I must recount again, once more,
How sweet to live, how sweet to conquer
The sea and women, word and foe.
But if, at last, he doesn't get it
And won't accept my wondrous faiths
In turn, we'll send him to the barrier
Who of world's pain and woe complains!
- 1917 or 1918