Death of the Dear
The drought has destroyed everything, all around.
The sun has now melted and flown on the ground.
All that's left is the bare sky, which burns really hot.
From the wells, all the buckets draw black mud a lot.
And above the pale forests rise often bright flames,
Dancing wildly and playing satanic dark games.
I follow my father uphill through the scrub
I'm scratched by the fir trees, my body they rub.
We start our hunting of goats once again
On the mounts of our dearest Carpathian chain.
The thirst is oppressing. I see when I walk
How boil water droplets somewhere on a rock.
With head on my shoulder I seem to advance
On a huge, foreign planet, where I've fallen by chance.
We're waiting in silence, not far from a spring
Its waters are tinkling, we clearly can hear.
When the sun goes to sleep and moon climbs on a string
Then will come one by one
To drink water, the deer.
I'm thirsty, but my father is stopping me to cry
Intoxicating water, you're tossing, then you pause!
Thirst links me with the being that is about to die,
Despite the ancient customs and the laws.
A withered rustling stirs the peaceful vale
The evening in the universe expands
Blood smears the dark horizon, I barely can inhale
And on my chest I've wiped my bloody hands.
Ferns burn like on an altar, it's sublime,
And all the stars are blinking in the breeze,
Oh, how I wish you didn't come this time
You, charming victim from among the trees!
She comes out jumping, stops, ready to fly,
And looks around, there's no one on the grass,
Then her thin nostrils on the water lie
Making small ripples, which seem made of brass.
In her wet eyes a light is gleaming, pale,
She'll die and she will suffer; yes, I know,
I think I'm living in that fairy tale
With a sweet lady turned into a doe.
The moonlight now is starting to expand
It rains on her with cherry blossoms, white,
Oh, how I wish for once my father's hand
To miss the target in this summer night!
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poem by Nicolae Labiş, translated by Octavian Cocoș
Added by anonym
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