Thursday, May 21, 2009

Boris Pasternak : Night


The night proceeds and dwindling
Prepare's the day's rebirth.
An airman is ascending
Above the sleeping earth.

And almost disappearing
In cloud, a tiny spark,
He now is like a cross-stitch,
A midget laundry-mark.

Beneath him are strange cities,
And heavy traffic-lanes,
And night-clubs, barracks, stokers,
And railways, stations, trains.

The shadow of his wing-span
Falls heavy on the cloud.
Celestial bodies wander
Around him in a crowd.

And there, with frightful listing
Through emptiness, away
Through unknown solar systems
Revolves the Milky Way.

In limitless expanses
Are headlands burning bright.
In basements and in cellars
The stokers work all night.

And underneath a rooftop
In Paris, maybe Mars
Or Venus sees a notice
About a recent farce.

And maybe in an attic
And under ancient slates
A man sits wakeful, working,
He thinks and broods and waits;

He looks upon the planet,
As if the heavenly spheres
Were part of his entrusted
Nocturnal private cares.

Fight off your sleep: be wakeful,
Work on, keep up your pace,
Keep vigil like the pilot,
Like all the stars in space.

Work on, work on, creator-
To sleep would be a crime-
Eternity's own hostage,
And prisoner of Time.

8 comments:

Alex Robinson said...

благодарность Devin
That was удвительный. I hope you are having a lovely день.

приятель forever :)

Sharon Day said...

That is the most beautiful to read and vividly imagined poem. I am so humbled when I realize what words alone can do. Thanks so much for sharing that. For some weird reason, it reminds me of standing in the pool last night watching the rain skies let loose and closing my eyes and spinning around as the droplets hit me. Just me and the universe.

Julie Ferguson said...

I would love to be able to soar to the various planets and the universe. What a beautiful site that would be. Nice post.....

Devin said...

Howd you do that Alex-or should I say Alexandra!!:-) your friend here in arizona forver also -love you!!

Autumnforest as always I so appreciate your incredibly insightful comments and the hard work you do at your blog-if connecton holds hope to be around tonight to read new articles by people as always agree with your thougts-best as always!!

Mike and Julie -thanks so very much for stopping by-really appreciate it-best as always!!

Anonymous said...

What a fabulous poem - I love it.

Devin said...

Aggie-I am so happy you enjoyed it!! Please get better soon-those type of flu/colds are the worst-Sophie cat will be there for you as we all are;-)best to you as always!!

Anonymous said...

Hey Devin, I rarely read poetry, but that was lovely :-)

Devin said...

stevo-thanks so much for stopping by and commenting-I am so glad you enjoyed the poem!! best to you as always!!