The age proceeds along its iron path,
All hearts a brim with greed; and every hour
Our common dreams grow ever more obsessed
With shameless profit and mundanity.
And in the light of learned reason
All childish dreams of poetry dissolve.
Devoted to industrious pursuits
The young no longer heed them.
Hellas is awake once more
To triumphant liberty,
Gathered are its citizens
And upraised are its capitals;
Science flourishes there once more,
The Pont teem once again with trade
But no more are the lyre’s sounds heard
Within the Muses’ ancient heav’n.
The winter of the world enfeebled now doth shine
And shine! Mankind grows stern and pale;
But Homer’s land is blooming forth,
Hills, forests, and the banks of azure lakes.
Parnassus blooms! Below it, as before,
Castalian waters rush in streams;
Unheralded child of Nature’s dying strength,
Behold a Poet — he strolls and sings.
With simple heart he sings
Of love and beauty,
And science disobedient
Is thin and vain for him:
He cures our temporary sufferings
With his lighthearted play.
’tis better, mortals, for the earth
To feel delight in ignorant days.
Alas, he sings of passion’s paradise
To the disciples of cold Uranus;
Like the wild wind that blows across the fields
They scatter seeds within the hearts of men;
And driven and enlivened by this breath,
Imagination springs forth from their hearts,
As once the goddess Aphrodite rose
From foaming oceanic depths.
And why can’t we surrender
To laughing dreams?
But instead our burning hearts we tender
To timid thoughts!
Believe the sweet temptation
Of the eyes caressing you
And the lovely revelations
Of compassion heaven-sent!
Cruel laughter answers him; his hands
Lie motionless upon his lyre,
His lips, once parted, now press closed,
Though his proud head bends not:
In thought he aims his step
Into the wordless, empty wild; but the world’s
no more an empty cave,
No lonely place remains.
The deep blue sea alone
Declines man’s sovereignty,
But offers breadth and freedom
And welcome to all things;
Nor has it known a change
Since Phoebus first essayed
To lift the orb eternal
Into the heavenly vault.
It roars beneath Levkada’s cliff
There, full of thoughts rebellious the singer
Stands…and his eyes blaze up with quick delight:
This cliff…the language of the waves ┘ and Sappho’s ghost ┘
Where Phaeon’s lover was laid to rest
The anguished flame of her spurned love,
Here will Apollo’s heir lay down
His vision and his futile gift!
As before in heartless glamour
The festive world shines on.
And its lifeless skeleton
It silver-plates and gilds;
But still the ocean’s mighty tides
Can drive man to distraction,
From roaring waves he turns
His soul a brim with yearning!
(Evgeny Abramovich Baratynsky)
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Based on Topics: Love Poems, Man Poems, God Poems, World Poems, Light Poems, Mind Poems, Nature Poems, Youth Poems, Dreams Poems, Thought & Thinking Poems, Beauty PoemsBased on Keywords: essayed, heaven-sent, hellas, obsessed, enfeebled, strolls, pursuits, castalian, unheralded, flourishes, disobedient