POEMS OF EXILE

Songs of mine, O songs of mine, You are all I have. Do not leave me now, I pray, In this dreadful time. Fly to me, my little dovelets, With your wings of gray. From the spreading Dnipro fly here To the steppes and stay With the poor and needy Kirghiz. They are really poor, Yes, and naked, but in freedom They can pray to God. Fly to me, my darling thoughts, With calm words and true, I shall greet you as my children And shall weep with you.

Sunset is coming, mountains are shadowed, Birds sink to quiet, fields cease their murmur, Peoples are gladly stopping their labors, But I am looking, while my heart’s flying To a dark garden in Ukraina; Flying, I’m flying, my thoughts ever roaming, Thus my poor heart is receiving some quiet. Fields are in shadow, mountains and forest, In the blue heaven, stars are appearing. Stars, O bright stars, for I am weeping, Have you come out yet there in Ukraina? Are the black eyes there awaiting your coming In the blue heaven? Have they forgotten? If they’ve forgotten, do not disturb them. Let them not notice what I am suffering!

My thirteenth birthday was now over. Near where I dwelt, I pastured lambs. Perhaps it was the bright sun shining, Perhaps it was something in me,— I felt so happy, yes, so happy, I loved the Lord.... They called me to share in their fortune, But I sat on the little hill And prayed to God. I have no memory Of what as little boy I sought When I was praying so contented, Or what a cheerful thought I had. The Lord’s own heaven and the village, The lambs appeared to be so merry. The sun just warmed,—it did not bake. It was not long the sun was warm, Not long endured the prayer. It ’gan to bake, it turned bloodred, And heaven it burned up. I wondered, as if waked from sleep, The village turned to black, God’s heaven turned unto dark blue And lost its golden sheen. I looked again upon the lambs,— They were no lambs of mine. I turned again unto the homes, There was no home of mine. For God had nothing given me, And then my tears welled forth, Such bitter tears. A little girl Upon the selfsame road, Not far away from where I stood, Was plucking at the hemp. She noticed I was weeping loud; She came and spoke to me, She wiped away my bitter tears And gave to me a kiss. Again the sun was shining brightly, Again all things in the wide world Were mine, the lambs, the fields and forests, And we were smiling as we drove Another’s lambs to water. How foolish! Now, when I remember, My heart weeps sadly and still aches; Why did the Lord not let me linger Some time in that dear paradise? I would have died a simple ploughman, I would have known naught of the world, I would ne’er been a fool to others, Would not have cursed both men and (God).