Poetry - Elisaveta Bagyrana

If my glance were not blest—

with you, inside. Open-eyed to penetrate the darkness,

and to make it fly and dance for me,

grafting wings to it,

to teach it how to see the flower,

to see the future fruit in the a branch still bare,

and to land with an interstellar craft

on a star that twinkles there—

how could my eyes, deprived of such joy

last,

if you did not exist ?

 

If you had not pitched my ear—

so that in stillness I can hear

those words, someone whispers to enlist for me

words, that bring both care and cheer,

with nearby or distant voice,

from outer space or next door’s fence,

that reach me when full of remorse,—

all that powerful richness of sense

my life would miss,

if you did not exist.

 

If you had not possessed my heart

from youth until this very hour,

poured all your song and thought in me—

so I might feel my sister’s hand

when I was helpless and alone,

so that your furnace could transmute

sorrow to a spark, into joyous-tones.

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Elisaveta Bagyrana (1893 - 1991) Bulgaria

Translated by Brenda Walker

Source: Poethead