Heaven Above, Heaven Below

Vyacheslav I Ivanov

Dionysus walks his vineyard, his beloved;

Two women in dark clothing - two vintagers - follow him.

Dionysus tells the two mournful guards - The vintagers:

"Take your sharp knife, my vintners, Grief and Torment;

Harvest, Grief and Torment, my beloved grapes!

Gather the blood of scarlet bunches, the tears of my golden clusters -

Take the victim of bliss to the whetstone of grief,

The purple of suffering to the whetstone of bliss;

Pour the fervent liquid of scarlet delights into my ardent Grail!" 

* * *

Night opens wide the burning Macrocosm,-

And heaven's hierarchies come into view

Lo, the spirit sings, and the elements dance

Interwoven with snaky locks of starlight.

And the Microcosm grows distinct in the deep night:

We hear the roar of elements spinning inside us,-

And behold our own hierarchical assemblage

From close stars to dim-eyed spots of light.

There is a milky way in the soul as in the heavens;

There is a multitude in both of these creations:

The same word is stamped in both of these books -

And twin scales measure the same weight.

There is a He in the flames of depths revealed;

There is an I in the deepest miracles. 

* * *

The snow is clothed in dawn

In the high desert,

We are oaths of Eternity

In the azure of Beauty.

We are splashes of scarlet foam

On the pallor of the seas.

Renounce your earthly chains

To sit among the kings!

Don't imagine we are dissolving in the sky,

Cut off from the earth: - 

A holy path leads

Beyond the clouds into dreams.