The wind, in the stubble rustling, announces Autumn.
The fields have turned grey, and in hollows the oxen are lowing.
The gossamer’s flying. The summer wheat’s reaped and brought in.
The winter-wheat, also, the farmers have finished sowing.
Bloom, dahlias! Ground frosts will come down and scorch you.
Turn yellow, bend down by the road, Lithuanian birchtree!
The sun’s getting lazy. Blue pinewoods are nodding, sleepy.
Make haste, o you cranes, before twilight, don’t wait till the night!
You’ll get lost if you stray. It is late, but the Milky Way’s keeping
The chain of its beacons across the dark sky-vault alight.
Fall silent, green grasshopper! Autumn is here with his treasure.
Come, Father, pour beer in our mugs, let us drink it at leisure.
There’s plenty of everything! Apples roll down from the hill.
And bread! For the greediest there’d be enough and to spare.
The rowan-tree burns. In the mud big fat porkers lie still.
Grey geese raise their clamour. The blackbirds on treebranches bare
Sit noisy and gay as young boys in a mischievous band.
Big carts in a caravan lined, at the cellar-door stand.
We sit down together to drink to the bountiful year,
Inviting our friends and our neighbours to feast with us too.
There’s piles of brown meat-pies and juicy green cucumbers here,
And honey smells sweet, and good beer foams and flows: here’s to you!
We drink, then we eat, drink anew, and then songs start to sound
Of the bounty that gladdens our hearts, that our labours has crowned.
To you, poet, Autumn brings new inspiration as well.
Go, praise with your rhymes the green rye-shoots that sprout in the fields.
And the stubbly loam left for winter; harsh frosts our old peasants foretell.
Sing of hard-working peasants rejoicing, of Autumn’s rich yields,
Of the blessings and gifts of our fertile and bountiful land,
And your song will not rust while her birches and appletrees stand.
(Albinas Zukauskas)
More Poetry from Albinas Zukauskas:
Albinas Zukauskas Poems based on Topics: Autumn, Night, Praise, Fathers, Laziness, Flying, Winter, Literature, Leisure, Summer, Blessings- My Wake (Albinas Zukauskas Poems)
- Heavy Joy (Albinas Zukauskas Poems)
- Sweet Apples (Albinas Zukauskas Poems)
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- Immortality (Albinas Zukauskas Poems)
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Based on Topics: Night Poems, Summer Poems, Fathers Poems, Literature Poems, Praise Poems, Winter Poems, Poets Poems, Autumn Poems, Blessings Poems, Haste Poems, Flying PoemsBased on Keywords: dahlias, gladdens, announces, hard-working, cucumbers, lithuanian, appletrees, pinewoods, greediest, stubbly, porkers
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