KONSTANTIN BALMONT: "I Once Was a Son Of the Earth..."
"I Once Was a Son Of the Earth..."
(From "The Snow Flowers")
1897
I once was a son of the Earth,
For me marigolds grew in mirth,
I was very like to all men,
And wore their illusions’ hard chain.
But sadness of earth was then lost
With ears of the fields and green moss –
I went from the parental world
The truth and the falsehood beyond.
Reproaches won’t touch my soul,
I fathomed the instant hint all,
I heard the mysterious calls,
The endlessness of the mute voice.
I saw that there’s no any times,
That constant are patterns of stars,
That deathlessness leads to a death,
That after that death – deathlessness.
Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, October, 2002