PRIMEVAL MOTHER Poem by Edvard Kocbek

Where are you, oblivion? Where are you, transient winds?
Everything passes but my sad punishment,
look at me revered lo the highest mountain,
] am the oldest and closest to the beginning.

I no longer know to whom I call, who I beseech,
I am crazed by horror, singing from sorrow;
shouting and weeping blend into a melody
I've swung the angst of man since times immemorial.

I rock him with ineffable movements,
precipices amass in my blindness,
clear waterfalls storm through my deafness —
my story is older than darkness.

In my long ritual toga
I am the world's oldest sorrow,
torn apart by pain on the mountaintop
I cradle lost man in my arms.