Oh, Julia, Julia, how have you repaid
for my high gift and for my highest style?
You did not love me - that's how you reapaid,
and has appointed me the parting time.
Like Julia Primits- statue in Ljubljana -
is holding golden branch over Frank -
So you were playing with Muses without name
in summer heat, in winter storm with ice.
I was not asking - and you were not asking,
Only a cloud - from meeting, and from you,
a cloud you wear with duty as a garment,
and write a verse of sky, to earth refused.
And you want to play with the earth, just jesting,
you wind her round a finger, round and round,
and you say it is me to whom she's wedded,
while at the same time - spinning in the sky.
***
Ах, Юля, Юля, чем ты отплатила
за мой высокий дар, за мой высокий слог?
Ты отплатила тем, что не любила,
и расставания назначила мне срок.
как Юля Примиц - памятник в Любляне -
над Франком держит золотую ветвь, -
так ты играла с музой безымянной
и в летний зной и в зимнюю метель.
Я не прошу - и ты меня не просишь,
Лишь облако - от встречи, от тебя,
и облако к тебе покорно носишь,
и пишешь неба стих, земное не любя.
И хочется играть, шутя, с землею.
ее как вокруг пальца обводить,
и говорить: она повенчана со мною,
одновременно в небе - чтоб кружить.
A beautiful poem, Liza. I was drawn to the title because my stepmother's name was Julia, and she worked very hard to take care of my younger brothers and sisters when my father remarried after my mother passed away young. The beauty of it is, I could write a poem with the same title, and have it be all about her! Thank you for sharing this poem with us.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
I remember reading your poems to Julia from last year so I have a context in which to understand this poem and also its companion poem also dated Nov.7. This poem does not tell any story or relate any examples to prove its assertions. The action is really within YOU as you try to cope with betrayal (I think that term shows the impact on you) . Such complex emotions you express in very dense language. I do not fully understand what is being said but what really matters is the emotional tone and experience. That communicates both the pain and the need for some higher force to help heal the wound. (Joseph Campbell calls this wound caused by human love THE AMFORTAS WOUND after Wagner's PARSIFAL.) What this poem does for me is convince me of the need for prayer after such a heightened experience, prayers of gratitude if it's succesful, prayers for strength if it's a failure