In Your Language - Grigore Vieru

Everybody giggles
In the same old language,
Everybody whimpers
In the same old tongue.

Yet only in your language
Are words that give you comfort,
And only in your language
Is joy the path to song.

You feel you miss your mother
In only it - your language.
And dinner's like no other
In only it - your language.
It's only in your language
That you can laugh alone.
And only in it, your language
Can stop your sobbing moan.

And when the weeping ceases,
And even laughter ends,
When nothing's left that eases,
No singing, no amends,
With endless skies before you
And ending earth behind,
You learn the words of silence
Your tongue is sure to find.

---

Grigore Vieru (1935 - 2009) Moldova
Translated by Paul Abucean
Source: PoemHunter