mihai eminescu -evning star

8/2/2019 Mihai Eminescu -Evning Star

1/11

In times when fairy tales begin,

In times with magic laden,

There lived, of high and noble kin,A most enchanting maiden.

She was the only child they raised,Of wits and virtues many,

As is the Virgin midst the praised

And midst the stars Selene.

Beneath a dark, majestic vault

She walks, her steps abating

Close to the window where, in alt,The Evening Stars awaiting.

She gazes at his distant rays

That glow and light the ocean,While on the rolling water ways

Black galleys set in motion.

She sees him now, she sees him then,

Thus ripens her desire;From watching over and again,

His love for her grows higher.

When on the elbows her head leans,Sweet reveries prolonging,

Her heart and soul can find no meansTo quieten their longing.

And so alive his light cascades

Whenever dusk gets nearer,Around the murky castles shades

As hes about to see her...

* * *

He trails her footsteps when she leaves

Towards her nights retire,And with his icy sparkles weaves

A web of flashing fire.

And when she lies in bed to rest,

A sleepy child so candid,

He strokes her arms set on her chest,

He closes her sweet eyelid;


2/11

And from the mirrors depth his glare

Reflects upon her body,Upon her eyes shut unaware,

Upon her face leaned mildly.

Seeing her lips from smiling sweep,

He shivers in the mirror,

As he pursues her in her sleepTo hold her spirit dearer.

And then she speaks to him in dreams

And sighs within a sad plea:Oh, sweet lord, who my night redeems,

Why dont you come? Come by me!

Descend, my stellar prince so kind,Along a soft ray gliding,

Pervade the castle and my mind,Light to my life providing!

He listens eagerly to her,Resplendent and reviving,

Then suddenly becomes a blur,

Into the dark sea diving.

The water around where he falls

Spawns rings of growing sizes,

While from the unknown deep he crawlsAnd as a young man rises.

Walking as smoothly as on sandThrough open window spaces,

He holds a sceptre in his hand

Enfolded in reed laces.

He looks just like a youthful king

With silky, golden tresses;

A bluish shroud tied in a ringHis naked shoulders dresses.

But then his livid face disguiseExudes a waxen glimmer

A handsome ghost with lively eyes

That only outwards shimmer.


3/11

Out of my realm I came, your call

To follow with devotion;

My father is the heavens tall,My mother is the ocean.

To reach the place that is your home,To get to see you closer,

I had to leave the skys fair dome

And be reborn of water.

Oh, come, my holy treasured love,

Give up your world forever!

I am the Evening Star above,Become my true bride ever!

Down there, in palaces of pearls,

Well live for many ages,And everywhere the sea unfurls

Its souls shall be your pages.

Oh, youre as handsome as in dreams

An angel would be showing,But on the path lit by your beams

Ill never think of going;

Youre foreign in both tongue and wear,And coldness you deliver,

For Im alive, while you a glare,

And your eye makes me shiver.

* * *

A few more days go by, and then,

One night of airy splendor,

The Evening Star comes up again,

With bright rays, clear and slender.

Inevitably in her dreams

His image keeps returningAnd thus the lord of wavy streams

Refills her heart with yearning:

Descend, my stellar prince so kind,

Along a soft ray gliding,

Pervade the castle and my mind,

Light to my life providing!


4/11

From up there, when he hears her pray,

In sorrow he retires,And soon the sky begins to sway

Around where he expires;

The air fills up with flames that climb

And flood the world in surges,

As from the chaos vales, sublime,A graceful youth emerges.

On raven curls like tendrils smooth

His crown seems to be burning,He comes surrounded by pure truth,

Into a suns blaze turning.

Amidst the folds of his black shroudTwo marble arms are shaping,

His face is like a somber cloudBeneath the gloomy draping;

And yet his large and splendid eyesShine deeply with desire,

Like two voracious passion cries

That through the dark transpire.

Out of my realm I strived and came,

Your call again to follow;

My father is the sun aflame,My mother the night hollow;

Oh, come, my holy treasured love,Give up your world forever!

I am the Evening Star above,

Become my true bride ever!

Oh, come, and in your golden hair

Let me twine starry laces,

And on my heavens be my pair,Most lovely of all faces.

Oh, youre as handsome as in dreamsA demon would be showing,

But on the path lit by your beams

Ill never think of going!


5/11

Your cruel love is inhumane

And hurts my feelings deeply,

My eyes are overwhelmed by pain,Your fiery gazing burns me.

But how could I descend to you?Do you not see the reason,

In that my time is never through,

While yours is just a season?

I know not where to seek an end,

Nor how to be beginning

Although your words I understand,I cannot see their meaning;

But if you truly wish my heart

To love you like no other,Then from the heavens you depart,

Become a mortal, rather.

You ask me my immortal glow

To give up for your kisses,So I in turn wish you to know

How passionate my love is;

Indeed, I shall be born in sin,By novel law abiding;

To the eternity Im kin,

From it Ill be dividing.

And he keeps going out of sight.

For love of a young maidenHe vanishes from heavens height,

For days remaining hidden.

* * *

Now in the meantime Catalin,

Slick boy in servant jackets,In charge of pouring beverage in

Mens goblets at the banquets,

A page who carries all around

The empresss long dresses,

A bastard child, abandoned found,

Yet not shy with his glances,


6/11

With rosy cheeks fresh like the sprout

Of spring cute little sinner,Quietly sneaks, spying about

And eyeing Catalina.

Just look how lovely is her sight,

And gorgeous oh, God bless her!

Yes, Catalin, the time is rightTo try your luck, no lesser.

He steals a hold of her within

A path on the yards borders.What now, you wicked Catalin?

Go way and mind your orders!

What now? I wish to see you slipAway from thoughts so lonely,

And rather laugh, and give my lipA little buss, one only.

But I dont know what you speak of Leave me alone, go yonder!

Oh, for the Evening Star above

I have an aching wonder.

If you dont know, Id show you round

Loves yard, petal by petal,

Only unwind and do not frown,But bear with me a little.

As when a hunter lays a nooseFor songbirds young and charmful,

When I unfold my left arm loose

Embrace me in an armful;

And let your eyes stare with amaze

Into my eyes intently

When your slim waist I try to raise,Upon your toes rise gently;

When I look downwards, to my faceKeep your face straight up further,

So we can gaze with endless grace

And sweetness at each other;


7/11

And such that everything is said

Between ourselves, my lover,

When kissing you I bow my head,Kiss me over and over.

She listens to the naughty boyAstonished and distracted,

And playfully, and rather coy,

Now snubbing, now attracted,

She says to him: Since I was small

I learned to know you closely;

So chatty and no good at all,You would quite suit me, mostly

Alas, a stellar prince arose

From a forgotten kindness,And to unbound horizon glows

Above the oceans blindness;

And secretly my eyelids seize,

For they are drowned by weepingWhenever waves upon the seas

Towards him journey sweeping;

He shines with everlasting love,My pain away beseeches,

And yet ascends so high above

To be beyond my reaches.

His sad and frosty light rays spill

Across two worlds departedForever I will love him, still

Forever well be parted

And for this reason my days areAs empty as the prairies,

While nights are filled with holy charm,

Mysterious like fairies.

You are but childish, hence so frail

Lets run afar forever,And hope that they will lose our trail

So none will know us ever.

For in our hearts we shall be twin,


8/11

We shall have joy and wellness,

And youll no longer miss your kin

Or dream of stellar highness.

* * *

The Evening Star departs. The sky

With growing wings he beckons,

And thousand-year-long flights go byIn just as many seconds.

A sky of stars unfolds below,

Above more stars that twinkle;He seems to be a lightning flow

Astray amidst their sprinkle.

Out of the chaos vales, sublime,Surrounding him and surging,

He sees, beyond the dawn of time,The streaming lights emerging.

As they emerge and spill aroundLike giant seas amassing,

He flies, his yearning mind unbound,

Until all turns to nothing.

For where he gets theres no domain

Nor eye that can discover,

And time itself struggles in vainFrom bareness to recover.

Its but a void, yet he does findA thirst that draws him over,

A deep abyss resembling blind

The failure to remember.

Of harsh and dark eternity

Relieve me, please, my Father,

And blessed thy name forever beBy all the world together.

Oh, ask, my Lord, for any charge,But make my fate another,

For while your source puts lives at large

As well their deaths you gather.


9/11

My immortality recall,

Extinguish my eyes fire,

And give me, in exchange of all,One hour of desire.

From chaos, Lord, I rose, and yearnTo be returned to chaos

Out of the utmost stillness born

I have a thirst for stillness.

Hyperion, you who from naught

Appeared, a world reclaiming,

Ask not for signs or marvels thatHave neither face nor naming.

Become a man is this your goal,

Their likeness to acquire?But were mankind to perish whole,

Others would still aspire.

They only build, yet cannot save,

Ideals all too shallow As waves keep marching to their grave

More waves arise and follow.

They have but lucky stars to chaseWhile haunted by misfortunes,

We live outside of time and space

With no death in our fortunes.

Out of eternal yesterday

Todays living expire;Were an old sun to fade away,

New suns would burst afire.

Seemingly parted from the voidBy void they are predated,

For all are born to be destroyed

And die to be created.

Still you, Hyperion, shall last

Even beyond your twilightAsk for the prime word of my past

Shall I gift you with insight?

Your voice at singing shall I ease,


10/11

Adorn it with emotions

That could charm mountains and their trees

And islands of the oceans?

Perhaps in deed you wish to show

Your righteousness and power?Id have the Earth sliced row by row

For you, to reign all over.

Ill give you fleets lined side by side

And legions you could spread through

The lands afar and oceans wide,

But death I cannot grant you

And dying for whos really worth?

Just turn around and travel

Back to that ever-drifting EarthAnd watch your fate unravel.

* * *

His place, where he was meant to stay,Hyperion regaining,

Like visions from a former day

His rays, again, start raining.

For twilights hour is about

And night will be her daughter;

The quiet moon is coming outTrembling from under water

And fills up with her magic glowThe trails in forests hidden.

By lovely linden trees, below,

Two youngsters lay down even.

Upon your bosom let my head,

Beloved, to surrender

Beneath the glitter your eyes spreadSo sweet no words can render;

With their enchantingly cold lightStroll out through my compassion,

And pour perpetual delight

Along my night of passion.


11/11

And always over me remain

To ease my aching sadness,

For you are my first loving painAnd my last dream of madness.

Hyperion sees from aboveThe wonder on their faces;

He barely touched her neck with love

When she his waist embraces

The silver flowers perfume spreads,

Their bloom is gently snowing

Upon the two young childrens headsWith long and fair curls flowing.

Then she, from love in spirits high,

Raises her eyes and glimpsesThe Evening Star. Yet only shy

Entrusts him with her wishes:

Descend, my stellar prince so kind,

Along a soft ray gliding,Pervade the forest and my mind,

Light to my fate providing!

He shivers like the other daysAbove the hills and valleys,

While guiding, on their lonesome ways,

The rolling water alleys;

But unlike then, he does not fold

Into the sea from farther:What do you care, you earthly mould,

Whether its I or other?

Enclosed within your narrow ringGood-fortuned lives youre spending,

Whilst I to my own heavens cling,

Immortal and unbending.

* * *

mihai eminescu -evning star

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