I
Grim and hungry both, we often talked together
In an old suburban attic – remember? – just we two,
While beneath the hill the Neris flowed forever
Bearing off a lot that puzzled me and you.
Life was at our throats; behind the window Autumn
Kept its midnight vigil, wakeful, open-eyed.
To the wind’s soft sobbing in the bare wet treetops
Our young hearts, aflutter, somewhere seemed to fly.
Through the windy town they seemed to roam together
By the Neris, through the streets of our old town,
Where still greater sorrows could be found, like elm-trees
Over every cottage their branches hanging down.
II
Down the Neris Spring flowed off one shady evening.
We read Mayakovsky, astonished by his force.
He made clear to both that life is worth a struggle;
No need to become a living, worthless corpse.
“In this life of ours to die is pretty easy;
To build a life worth living is a much harder thing…”
And the river broke up the winter, sad and grizzly,
And our hearts were flooded by swift-watered Spring.
Silent, without words we stood and looked straight forward
And each other’s hands we held and firmly squeezed.
Mighty crowds that spring-day marched with steady footsteps,
From their age-old yoke for good at last released.
(Eugenijus Matuzevicius)
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Based on Topics: Life Poems, Sadness Poems, Spring Poems, Winter PoemsBased on Keywords: grizzly, open-eyed, age-old, elm-trees, mayakovsky, aflutter, spring-day, neris