Venice masks

Saturday, 7 February 2026

Summer Memory - Marie Under

The door ajar, I stood at point of day,
Tiptoe for you and with awakened eyes.
The sun's gold slipper trod the gravelled way,

The grasses spilled their dews in glad surprise--
And then you came out of a mist of flowers
That clung and swayed like knots of butterflies!

When afterwards we two, in softened hours,
Walked through the fields of rye all red for reaping,
I felt as if my heart obeyed new powers:

The old in me seemed either dead or sleeping,
And as I glimpsed the poppies' fluttering fire,
An eager pleasure set my pulses leaping,

And you, these sang, could give me my desire.

Marie Under (1883 - 1980) Estonia
Translated by W. K. Matthews
Source: The Free Library: Estonian poetry in English, Lauri Pilter, Forum for World Literature Studies, Dec 2010

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