To The Star

by Mihai Eminescu

To The Star 

So far it is athwart the blue 

To where yon star appears, 

That for its light to reach our view 

Has needed thousand years. 

Maybe that ages gone it shed 

Its glow, then languished in the skies, 

Yet only now its rays have sped 

Their journey to our eyes. 

The icon of the star that died 

Slowly the vault ascended; 

Time was ere it could first be spied, 

We see now what is ended. 

So is it when our love’s aspire 

Is hid beneath night’s bowl, 

The gleam of its extinguished fire 

Enkindles yet our soul. 

Sonnet V 

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. 

Ode In Antique Metre 

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. 

Miserably I burn alive like Nessus, 

Or Hercules wrapped in his poisoned cloak; 

The fire in me the boundless sea itself 

Could never quench. 

By my own dreams consumed, I endless wail; 

At my own pile I am consumed in flame, 

Shall I then luminous one day return 

As does the Phoenix? 

Tormenting eyes but vanish from my way, 

Come to my breast again sad unconcern; 

That I may die in peace at last, myself 

Give back to me.

(Translated by Corneliu M. Popescu)