O lovely maid, all splendours fade before thy grace!
Soft ringlets deck thy ivory neck and godlike face.
In dreams I kiss thy lips, and bliss my bosom sways.
O radiant eyes, sweet heaven lies beneath your gaze!
Forget me ne'er, O maiden fair of sunlike rays!
Thy eyes of blue, so soft in hue, my soul inspire.
They sparkle bright with flashing light in liquid fire.
Midst joyous tears and anxious fears I now expire.
To melt in thee, O ecstasy, is my desire...
Eh! my poor heart feels but the smart of thorn and briar!
My beauteous queen, none e'er has seen such charms as thine!
So let me press in sweet excess thy form to mine,
And kiss and kiss in endless bliss those lips of thine,
And from thy lip my own will sip soul-melting wine.
O love! O fires! O sweet desires! be ever mine!
Thy graceful frame that praises claim enslaves the eye;
Thy snow-white arms with luring charms make bosoms sigh;
On thy warm breast with graces blest I long to die.
I knew but mirth upon this earth beneath the sky,
But now I know love's pain and smart, and ceaseless cry.
Like the pale moon I wane and swoon and longing sigh.
My vital breath I yield to death and agony.
O lovers all, to ye I call, do not deny
Me your hot tear to deck the bier on which I lie.
O life, farewell! I welcome hell and burning die!
Bessiki [Bessarion Gabashvili] (1751 — 1791) Georgia
Source: Anthology of Georgian Poetry, Translated by Venera Urushadze, State Publishing House, 1958
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