The Murmur of the Forest – Mihai Eminescu

On the pond bright sparks are falling,

Wavelets in the sunlight glisten;

Gazing on the woods with rapture,

Do I let my spirit capture

Drowsiness, and lie and listen…

                                                          Quails are calling.

All the silent water sleeping

Of the streams and of the rivers;

Only where the sun is shining

Thousand circles there designing

As with fright its surface shivers,

                                                         Swiftly leaping.

Pipe the birds midst woods concealing,

Which of us their language guessing?

Birds of endless kinds and races

Chirp amidst its leafy places

And what wisdom they expressing

                                                             And what feeling.

Asks the cuckoo: ,,Who has seen

Our beloved summer idol,

Beautiful beyond all praising

Through her languid lashes gazing,

Our most lovely, tender, bridal,

                                                           Forest queen?”

Bends the lime wiyh gentle care

Her sweet body to embower;

In the breeze his branches singing

Lift her in their arms upswinging,

While a hundred blossoms shower

                                                      On her hair.

Asks the brooklet as it flows

,, Where has gone my lovely lady?

She, who evening hour beguiling,

In my silver surface smiling,

Broke its mirror deep and shady

                                                       With her toes?”

I replied: ,,O forest, she

Comes no more, no more returning!

Only you, great oaks, still dreaming

Violet eyes, like flowers gleaming,

That the summer through were yearning

                                                         Just for me.”

Happy then, alone we twain,

Through the forest brush-wood striding!

Sweet enchanted tale of wonder

That the darkness broke asunder…

Dear, wherever you’d be hiding,

                                                         Come again!

translated by Corneliu M. Popescu

Alt cer senin, Alice, Androxa, Carla, George, Ioan Usca, Paporniţa, Rokssana, Schtiel, Shayna,  Supravieţuitor, Theodor,  Visualw

Doina – Mihai Eminescu

From Tisa to the Nistru’s tide

All Roumania’s people cried

That they could no longer stir

For the rabbled foreigner.

From Hotin down to the sea

Rides the Muscal cavalry;

From the sea back to Hotin

Nothing but their host is seen;

While from Dorna to Boian

Seems the plague has apread its ban;

Leaving on our land a scar

That you scarcely know it more.

Up the mountains down the dale,

Have our foes flung far their trail.

From Săcele to Satmar

Only foreign lords there are;

While Roumanians one and all

Like the crab must backwards crawl.

And reversed is everything:

Spring for them is no more spring,

Summer is no longer summer,

They, at home, the foreign comer.

From Turnu up to Dorohoi

Does the alien horde deploy

And our fertile fields enjoy.

With their rumbling trains they come.

Making all our voices dumb,

And our birds so much affray

That in haste they fly away.

Nothing now but withered thorn

Does the Christian’s hearth adorn.

And the smiling earth they smother;

Forest – good Roumanian brother –

You too bend before their tide,

And the very springs they’ve dried.

Sad is this our countryside.

Who has sent them to these parts,

May the dogs eat out their hearts;

May the night their homes efface,

And with them this shameless race.

Stephen, mighty emperor,

You in Putna reign no more.

While his holy prelacy

Guards alone the monastery,

Where the priests in fervent prayer

Of the saints take pious care.

Let them toll the bells away,

All the night and all the day,

And the gracious Lord invoke

That he come and save your folk!

Stephen rise up from the ground,

And your battle trumpet sound

All Moldavia gathered round.

Blow your trumpet just one blare,

All Moldavia will be there;

Let your trumpet blazen two

That the forests follow you;

Let your trumpet blazen three,

That our foes demolished be

From the crows may hear their knell

And the gallows-tree as well.

translated by Corneliu M. Popescu 

You Never Knew My Soul – M. Eminescu

For me in all existence nowhere such wealth abides

As in the tender secret your gentle beauty hides;

For on what other wonder than that of your sweet charm

Would I a lifetime squander of meditation calm

On legends and on musing, and thus a language mould

That it with fleeting cadence your loveliness enfold

With chains of flowing images, and on it dreams bestow

That it ne’er till time’s ending shall to the darkness go?

Today when all my being to your being is bound,

When hid in every sorrow for me a joy is found;

When you to me more lovely than marble do appear

And in your eye is kindled a ray of starlight clear

That while I gaze upon you I feel I must go blind

With so much shining wonder that floods upon my mind;

Today when is my longing so tender and so true

As is the very charm itself that does your form endue,

And stronger is the yearning that our two hearts have known

Than light that yearns for darkness, the chisel for the stone;

When my desire is boundless, so gentle and so high

As on the earth is nowhere, and nowhere in the sky;

When everything about you for me is magic spell,

A smile, a word, a gesture, no matter ill or well;

When you are the enigma of life for me the whole,

Your words now show me plainly you never knew my soul.

translated by Corneliu M. Popescu

Alice, Carla, Carmen, Călin, Dictatura justiţiei, Ioan Usca, Mirela, Ragnar, Rokssana, Schtiel, Shayna

Guardian Angel – M. Eminescu

When my soul awake late last night, did it seem

That I saw my good angel come down as in a dream,

Engirdled with moonlight and silver star gleam,

And hover above me with wings wide outspread.

But you, when he spied, in your snowy white dress,

O child of sweet wonder, and secret caress,

Quite awed and astonished my guardian fled.

Good child, are you demon that just at one glance

Of your eyes through their lashes thrown softly askance

My angel and friend left his long vigilance?

O guardian angel, come back, do not flee

For this girl…! But no, let your long lashes fall,

That your pale lovely features again I recall,

For you… you are he.

Translated by Corneliu M. Popescu

Midst the Dense Old Forest Stout – M. Eminescu

Midst the dense old forest stout

All the merry birds fly out,

Quit the hazel thicket there

Out into the sunny air,

Round the pool grown high with sedge

Fly about the water’s edge

Where, by little waves deflected,

On its shining face reflected,

Image of the moon is lying,

And of birds of passage flying,

And of stars and heavens blue,

And of swallows not a few,

And my darling’s image too.

translated by Corneliu M. Popescu

Wild forests for you: androxa, carla, dagatha, papornita cu vorbe, rokssana, samsara, schtiel, theodor, visualw

How Many a Time, Beloved… – M. Eminescu

How many a time, beloved, no longer do I know,

There seems to spread before me a sea of ice and snow;

And not a single star does in the heaven shine,

Only the yellow moon quite far away… a sign.

While o’er the drifted waste of frozen ocean there

A bird with weary wings hangs in the winter air.

Its mate has gone ahead, and left it all alone,

Together with a flock that to the west has flown.

And so it gazes after, with tired, straining eyes,

But is no longer sorry now, nor glad… and dies,

While do its parting dreams the happy past pursue.

…………………………………………………………………..

Day by day I’m farther, beloved one, from you,

And slowly, cold and darkness do take me for their prey…

While you fly on for ever, midst time’s eternal day.

translated by Corneliu M. Popescu

Androxa, Carla, Rokssana, Samsara11, Schtiel, Visualw

Beats the moon upon my window – M. Eminescu

Beats the moon upon my window

Down the same untroubled lane.

Only you are never passing,

Nevermore beyond my pane.

 

And the same prune trees in blossom

Reach their branches o’er the fence,

But the hours the past has taken

Never shall again come thence.

 

Other is your soul’s intention,

Other eyes you have today,

Only I who am unchanging

Tread for ever that same way.

 

O, how slim and young and graceful,

Secretly with paces slow,

Would you come to me at evening

‘Neath the hidden hawthorn’s bough.

 

While my arms were clasped about you

It seemed we from the earth had sped;

And we talked great things together,

Though not a word had either said.

 

Kisses were our single answer,

Many queries, just one task,

While about the world beyond us

Neither had the time to ask.

 

Aye, little I knew in youth’s enchantment

That it is alike absurd

Or to lean against a shadow,

Or believe a woman’s word.

 

And the air still moves my curtain

As it used in times of yore…

Moonlight down the lane uncertain,

Only you come nevermore.

translated by Corneliu M. Popescu

Androxa, Carla, Rokssana, Schtiel, Samsara, Shayna 

Melancholy – M. Eminescu

It seemed that midst the clouds a gate was opened wide

Through which the pallid empress of waning night did ride.

O sleep, o sleep in silence, where thousand torches loom,

Wrapped in your silver garments, high in your crystal tomb,

Your sepulcher of heaven, of sky’s arc opaline,

O you beloved, and worshipped, fair moon of night the queen!

Unbounded is the kingdom that dreams beneath your haze,

What villages and valleys are lighted by your rays;

The sky is all asparkle,and ‘neath your pallid gleam

The lonely ruined castle has walls of chalk it seem.

The empty graveyard crouches beside the time-old church,

Its crosses leaning all ways, on one an owl aperch.

The belfry creaks, the toaca against it upright swings

As though some flying demon with dark transparent wings

Has touched it unexpectedly while lighting on the ground,

That it begins to tremble, and gives a wailing sound.

The church, a ruin lorn,

Is bowed and sad and empty, a place of shadows mourn;

And through it’s gaping windows a moaning breeze is heard,

As though grey witches whispered and one could hear their word.

On pillars and on altar, and painted walls remain

Naught but the gloomy contours on which time spreads its stain,

For priest a cricket chirps a sermon fine, obscure;

For sexton digs a woodworm eternal sepulture.

……………………………………………………………………………………..

Faith sets up in its churches fair icons to the saints,

And in  my soul sweet fancy a fairy legend paints;

But of time tossing billows, and wild tumultuous strain,

Naught but the gloomy contours and shadows now remain.

In vain I seek what happened in my exhausted mind.

A hoarsely prating cricket is all that I can find.

In vain my hand despairing upon my heart I clench,

Its stir is but a woodworm within the coffin bench.

When I look back on living, the past seems to unfold

As though it were a story by foreign lips retold.

As though I had not lived it, nor made of life a part.

Who is it then so softly this tale recites by heart

That I should pause to listen.. And laugh at what is said

As though it never happened?… Maybe since long I’m dead!

translated by Corneliu M. Popescu

Why Do You Wail, o Forest Trees – M. Eminescu

„Why do you wail, o forest trees,

Forest, without rain or breeze,

Your branches ill at ease?”

„How indeed should I not wail

When the hours of summer fail!

Nights grow longer, days get short,

On my branches few leaves caught,

And the winds with bitter sword

Drive my choristers abroud;

Autumn winds that forests flay,

Winter near, spring far away.

How indeed should I not groan

When my singing birds have flown,

And across the frozen sky

Flocks of swallows hurry by,

And with them my fancies fly

Leaving me alone to sigh;

Hurry on as time in flight

Turning day half into night,

Time that o’er the forest rings

With a fluttering of wings…

And they pass and leave me cold,

Nude and shivering and old;

For my thoughts with them have flown,

And with them my gladness gone!”

translated by Corneliu M. Popescu

Androxa, Carla, Rokssana, Theodor, Samsara, Schtiel

Cupid… – M. Eminescu

1. Cupid, dreadfully spoiled rascal,

Many a hoax stored in his head,

With the children romps and scampers,

With the ladies sleeps in bed.

 

2. From the daylight like a brigand

He will take great pains to hide;

But at dark he’ll try your window

And if it’s open slip inside.

 

3. Bits of string and bows and arrows

That’s of what his wealth is made.

Generous when no one needs him,

Stingy should you ask his aid.

 

4. Late at night he’ll rob your bookcase,

Read some volume doctrinaire,

And maybe between the pages

Find a thread of golden hair.

 

5. With strange thoughts, they cannot master,

Does he lead young minds astray;

Then before a lighted icon

All night long he’ll kneel and pray.

 

6. Oft some little girl in whispers

Does in him her soul confide,

And all night they sleep together

Like two pigeons side by side.

 

7. Petulant he is and heartless,

Winsome too, and full of guile,

And his eyes will sometimes sparkle

Roguish as a widow’s smile.

 

8. Graceful throat and rounded shoulder,

Here where maiden breast expands,

He will take a double armful

And will hide it with his hands.

 

9. While if you should beg him nicely.

Quite enough a scamp is he

Just to part the veil a little

And a moment let you see.

translated by Corneliu M. Popescu

Come Dear,Set Your World Apart – M. Eminescu

1. Come dear, set your world apart,

And on me yourself bestow;

Even should I take your heart,

No one in the world would know.

2. Come, let us awandering leave

Down steep winding sylvan ways

And amidst the twilight eve

Listen what the forest says.

3. O’er our path amidst the trees

Stars will silently appear;

Come dear one, except for these,

No one in the world will hear.

4. Your gold hair you will untwist

And most lovely you will be;

Should I hug you, don’t resist,

No one in the world will see.

5. Now the distant bagpipes’ croon

Does the sacred night invade,

While appears the climbing moon

O’er the silver beech-tree’s glade.

6. And amidst the boughs her light

Does enchanted shadows trace;

And I lose my senses quite

Gazing dear upon your face.

7. But you sigh and turn away,

You would dwell, yet do not dare,

You would go, and yet you stay,

Angel you with hanging hair.

8. Look, the water’s iridescent

Where the moon in splendour shines.

And within the lake her crescent

Its sweet loneliness enshrines.

9. On its surface starlight trembles,

Ripples through the rushes creep;

In its dreams the world assembles

And it cannot fall asleep.

10. While your lovely face beguiling

Holds it like a mirror there,

What do you regard in smiling?

Don’t you know that you are fair?

11. Blue the starlit heavens high,

Stars that in the water glow,

On the lake and in the sky,

Stars above and stars below.

12. Here the lime-tree’s scent is blown,

Here the twilight casts its spell,

And we two are quite alone,

And so happy words can’t tell.

13. Lonely hangs the moon at rest

O’er the stream where vapour furls,

And I close you to my breast

Maiden mine, with golden curls.

translated by Corneliu M. Popescu

Now Far I Am from You – Mihai Eminescu

Now far I am from you, before my fire alone,

And read again the hours that so silently have gone,

And it seems that eighty years beneath my feet did glide,

That I am old as winter, that maybe you have died.

The shadows of the past swift streams across life’s floor

The tale of all times, nothings that now exist no more;

While the wind with clumsy fingers softly fumbles at the blind

And sadly spins the fibre of the story in my mind…

I see you stand before me in a mist that does enfold,

Your eyes are full of tears and your fingers long and cold;

About my neck caressing your arms you gently ply

And it seems you want to speak to me, yet only sigh.

And thus I clasp entranced my all, my world of grace,

And both our lives are joined in that supreme embrace…

Oh, let the voice of memory remain for ever dumb,

Forget the joy that was, but that nevermore will come,

Forget how after an instant you thrust my arms aside,

For now I’m old and lonely, and maybe you have died.

translated by Corneliu M. Popescu

 

Solitude – M. Eminescu

1. With the curtains drawn together,

At my table of rough wood,

And the firelight fickering softly,

Do I fall to thoughtful mood.

 

2. Flocks and flocks of sweet illusions,

Memories the mind recalls,

And they softly creep like crickets

Through time’s grey and crumbled walls;

 

3. Or they drop with gentle patter

On the pavement of the soul,

As does wax before God’s altar

From the sacred candles roll.

 

4. About the room in every corner

Silver webs the spiders sew,

While among the dusty bookshelves

Furtive mice soft come and go.

 

5. And I gaze towards the ceiling

That so many times I saw,

And I listen how the bindings

With their tiny teeth they gnaw.

 

6. O, how often have I wanted

My worn lyre aside to lay;

From poetry and solitude

At last my thoughts to turn away.

 

7. But again the mice, the crickets,

With their small and rustling tread,

Awake in me familiar longings

And with poetry fill my head.

 

8. Once in a while, alas too rarely,

When my lamp is burning late,

Suddenly my heart beats wildly

For I hear the latch-bar grate.

 

9. It is She. My dusky chamber

In a moment seems to glow;

As if an icon’s holy lustre

Did o’er life’s threshold flow.

 

10. And I know not how the moments

Have the heart away to sneak,

While we whisper low our loving,

Hand in hand, and cheek to cheek.

 

translated by  Corneliu M. Popescu

 

Sonnet (The years have passed) – Eminescu

The years have passed like clouds across the dale;

The years have gone and will return no more,

For they no longer move me, as the lore

Of legend, and of song, and doina‘s tale

 

Brought wonder to my boyish brow of  yore,

And mystery its meaning half unveil.

Your shade falls round me now to no avail,

O secret twilight hour on evening’s shore.

 

To tear a sound out of the life that’s gone,

To stir within my soul again its thrill

My hand upon the silent lyre is numb.

 

Ay, all is lost beneath youth’s horizon,

The tender voice of bygone days is still,

While time rolls out behind me… night has come.

traducere: Corneliu M. Popescu

Eminescu – Drowsy Birds

Drowsy Birds

trad. Corneliu M. Popescu

Drowsy birds at even gliding,

Round about their nests alight,

In among the branches hiding…

                            Dear, good night!

Silence through the forest creeping,

Lullaby the river sighs;

In the garden flowers sleeping…

                             Shut your eyes!

Glides the swan among the rushes

To its rest where moonlight gleams,

And the angels’ whisper hushes…

                                 Peaceful dreams!

O’er the sky stars without number,

On the earth a silver light;

All is harmony and slumber…

                               Dear, good night!

 

Eminescu în engleză – Lucifer, And if…, A Dacian’s Prayer, Ode

And if… (trad. de Corneliu M. Popescu)

,,And if the branches tap my pane/ And the poplars whisper nightly./ It is  to make me dream again/ I hold you to me tightly.

And if the stars shine on the pond/ And light its sombre shoal,/ It is to quench my mind’s despond/ And flood with peace my soul.

And if the clouds their tresses part/ And does the moon outblaze,/ It is but to remind my heart/ I long for you always.”

A Dacian’s Prayer (trad. Corneliu M. Popescu)

,,When death did not exist, nor yet eternity,/ Before the seed of life had first set living free,/ When yesterday was nothing, and time had not begun,/ And one included all things, and all was less than one,/ When sun and moon and sky, the stars, the spinning earth/ Were still part of the things that had not come to birth,/ And You quite lonely stood… I ask myself with awe,/ Who is this mighty God we bow ourselves before.”

Ode (trad. Corneliu M. Popescu)

,,I little thought that I would learn to die;/ Forever young, enveloped in my cloak, My dreaming eyes I lifted to the star/ Of solitude.

When of a sudden you stood in my way,/ On, anguish you, of nameless suffering sweet…/ And to the dregs I dank the draught of death/ Unpardoning.”

Lucifer (trad. Corneliu M. Popescu)

,,Once on a time, as poets sing/ High tales with fancy laden,/ Born of a very noble king/ There lived a wondrous maiden.

An only child, her kinsfolk boon,/ So fair, imagination faints;/ As though amidst the stars the moon,/ Or Mary amidst the saints.

From ‘neath the castle’s dark retreat,/ Her silent way she wended/ Each evening to the window-seat/ Where Lucifer attended.

And secretly, with never fail,/ She watched his double race,/ Where vessels drew their pathless trail/ Across the ocean’s face.

And as intent she drank his light,/ Desire was quickly there;/ While he who saw her every night/ Soon fell in love with her.

And sitting thus with rested head,/ Her elbows on the sill,/ Her heart by youthful fancy led/ Did with deep longing fill.

While he, a brilliant shining spark,/ Glowed always yet more clear/ Towards the castle tall and dark/ Where she would soon appear.”

Eminescu în engleză

Mihai Eminescu în traducerea lui Corneliu M. Popescu, sună cam aşa:

,,O remain, dear one, I love you, / Stay with me in my fair land, / For your dreamings and your longings / Only I can understand.

You, who like a prince reclining / O’er the pool with heaven starred; / You who gaze up from the water / With such earnest deep regard.” (O, rămâi…)

,,Come to the forest spring where wavelets / Trembling o’er the pebbles glide / And the drooping willow branches / Its secluded threshold hide.

Eagerly your arms outstretching, / Hurry dear to my embrace, / That the breeze your hair will gather / And uplift it from your face.” (Dorinţa)

,,Days go past and days come still, / All is old and all is new, / What is well and what is ill, / You imagine and construe / Do not hope and do not fear, / Waves that leap like waves must fall; / Should they praise or should they jeer, / Look but coldly on it all.” (Glossă)