Hamlet's songs Poem by Paul-Eerik Rummo

1

The sea withdraws into itself. It is ebb tide.
On the dunes a streak of storm-foam fades.

Listen: what is the breeze rustling,
ominous and lurking?

Saw grass, oh friend, saw grass.
And gathering before us a cloud-mass.

There is a sudden fear. Look, in a vision,
a child in the saw grass wounds its hand,

a couple of lovers who run, fearless,
along the beach, barefooted,

barefooted and in their veins the windwine — — —
Saw grass, oh friend, saw grass.

Let it, let it, stop to complain,
there is not a single child on the beach,

none of us is barefooted.
Why does pain still not leave?

Saw grass rustles stiffly.
All those who wish to remain children

hoping that the cloud, the large black one,
never touches their love, —

all those who for a moment met in me,
for a moment I saw their dangers,

for a moment heaven got mixed up with earth,
for a moment I understood: no longer

can I stand hesitating and silent where one should
simply cry the bad into the good — — —

Saw grass, oh friend, saw grass.
And gathering before us a cloud-mass.

On the dunes a streak of storm-foam fades.
The sea withdraws into itself. It is ebb tide.

2

Yes, to be, to be, certainly to be
(Ah, only one lap, only one lap on which to rest
my head!)

and from the scabbard of doubts and boredom
(Ah, only one lap, only one lap on which to rest
my head!)
to draw the sword, when meanness and stupidity
(Ah, only one lap, only one lap on which to rest
my head!)
threaten to drown my childish childhood dreams
(Ah, only one lap, only one lap on which to rest
my head!)
in the mud of deceptions.


Thus to be, and at the same time to know
that life is not our struggle, to know
that what is coming is greater than me
and also greater than my enemy. Thus to be, and at the same time
to think of the children yet unborn whose laughter
destroys the swords of both of us.
Thus to be, to be, to be, and at the same time to think
of those whose name no one yet knows.

Ah, only one lap, only one lap on which to rest
my head!

Only one lap, only one lap on which to rest my head!!

Translated by Jüri Talvet and H. L. Hix