The Trees Poem by Nikolay Stepanovich Gumilyov

I know: to the trees, but not to us,
Perfection of the life is given, whole.
And on the Earth - the sister of the stars -
We live in exile, while they do at home.

In latest falls, in sad and empty fields,
The red-brass dawns and amber-clad sunrises
Teach to the hues, dissolved in thinnest films,
These people - green and free forever masses.

Moses exists among these oaks, tall,
And Mary, too - among the palms for ages …
Their souls send to the others quiet calls
With waters, run in darkness, void of edges.

While polishing and brushing stony gems,
And grinding rocks, the springs babble in a chore:
They sing a song, or mourn a broken elm,
Or praise the leaves, which dressed a sycamore.

Oh, if I might be ever blessed to find
The place, where, lost of singing and bewailing,
I would rise silently up to the heaven height
For the millenniums, unending.


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, May, 2000