Mihai Eminescu

[Lule Portokalli]

WHY DON'T YOU COME?

See the swallows quit the eaves
And fall the yellow walnut leaves,
The vines with autumn frost are numb,
Why don't you come, why don't you come ?

Oh, come into my arms' embrace
That I may gaze upon your face,
And lay my head in grateful rest
Against your breast , against your breast !

Do you remember when we strayed
The meadows and the secret glade,
I kissed you midst flowering thyme
How many a time, how many a time ?

Some women on the earth there are
Whose eyes shine as the evening star,
But be their charm no matter what,
Like you they're not, like you they're not !

For you shine in my soul always
More softly than the starlight blaze,
More splendid than the risen sun,
Beloved one, beloved one !

But it is late in autumn now,
The leaves have fallen from the bough,
The fields are bare, the birds are dumb...
Why don't you come, why don't you come ?

English version by Corneliu M. Popescu


Perkthimi ne shqip qe do shkruaj me poshte, nuk eshte i bere nga mua. I mbaj mend permendesh ato vargjet dhe nuk me kujtohet kush e ka bere perkthimin ne shqip. Nese dikush e di, mund te veri emrin e perkthyesit.


PERSE NUK VJEN?

Ja shih lejleket folete lane
Te verdhat flete nga pemet rane
Tutje mbi vreshta bryma ra
Po ti pse s’vjen, pse nuk vjen pra?

Eja ne krahe te te mbaj
Te adhuroj, te vdes pastaj
Dhe ta ve koken qe me dhemb
Mbi gjoksin tend, mbi gjoksin tend.

A te kujtohet koha valle
Kur bridhnim bashke ne livadhe
Dhe une te hidhja pulpul n’ere
Me mijra here, me mijra here?

Gjenden ne bote femra plot
Qe i kane syte zjarr e lot
Te arta qofshin ato gra
Si ty nuk ka, si ty nuk ka

Ti drite je per shpirtin tim
Gjithnje e bute e plot shkelqim
Me e ndritshme se vete dielli
E dashur moj, e dashur ti.

Por vjeshta fletet po i zverdh
Rrafshultat i shkretoi perreth
Po bien gjethet ca nga ca
Po ti pse s’vejn, pse nuk vjen pra?

[Cupke_pe_Korce]

Lulke, edhe ky versioni me poshte eshte shume i bukur. Kam qene ne klase te tete kur e kam lexuar per here te pare (thanks to a wonderful teacher of mine! who had not included the 5th stanza...I guess she thought it was too much :))

Perse Nuk Vjen?

Shoh dallendyshet q'ikin larg
Dhe gjethet qe u zverdhen pak
Mbi vreshta tutje bryma-ra
Perse ti s'vjen, pse nuk vjen pra?

Eja, ne krahe te te mbaj
Te t'admiroj, te vdes pastaj
Dhe te ve koken qe me dhemb
Mbi gjoksin tend, mbi gjoksin tend.

A te kujtohet koha valle
Kur ne te dy bridhnim ne livadhe?
Kur une te ngrija pupel n'ere
Me mijera here, me mijera here.

Ne bote gjenden femra plot
Qe syte i kane zjarr dhe lot
Te arta qofshin ato gra
Si ti nuk ka, si ti nuk ka.

Ti drite do sjellesh dhe kthjellim
Ne zemren time, shpirti im
Ti mbi cdo yll ke bukuri
Te dashuroj, moj e shtrenjta ti!

Vjeshta tani mbi fushat zverdh
Rrafshnaltat i shkreton perreth
Po bien fletet ca nga ca
Perse ti s'vjen, pse nuk vjen pra?

[Veshtrusja]

One Wish Alone Have I

One wish alone have I:
In some calm land
Beside the sea to die;
Upon its strand
That I forever sleep,
The forest near,
A heaven near,
Stretched over the peaceful deep.
No candles shine,
Nor tomb I need, instead
Let them for me a bed
Of twigs entwine.

That no one weeps my end,
Nor for me grieves,
But let the autumn lend
Tongues to the leaves,
When brooklet ripples fall
With murmuring sound,
And moon is found
Among the pine-trees tall,
While softly rings
The wind its trembling chime
And over me the lime
Its blossom flings.

As I will then no more
A wanderer be,
Let them with fondness store
My memory.
And Lucifer the while,
Above the pine.
Good comrade mine,
Will on me gently smile;
In mournful mood,
The sea sings sad refrain ...
And I be earth again
In solitude.

(Translated by Corneliu M. Popescu)

[miko]

Mortua Est



Two candles, tall sentry, beside an earth mound,
A dream with wings broken that trail to the ground,
Loud flung from the belfry calamitous chime...
'Tis thus that you passed o'er the boundaries of time.



Gone by are the hours when the heavens entire
Flowed rivers of milk and grew flowers of fire,
When the thunderous clouds were but castles erect
Which the moon like a queen each in turn did inspect.



I see you a shadow bright silver transcending,
With wings high uplifted to heaven ascending,
I see you slow climbing through the sky's scaffold bars
Midst a tempest of light and a snowstorm of stars;



While the witches the sound of their spinning prolong,
Exalted in sunshine, swept up by a song,
O'er your breast like a saint you white arms crossed in prayer,
And gold on the water, and silver in the air.



I see your soul's parting, its flight I behold;
Then glaze at the clay that remains ... mute and cold,
At the winding-sheet clung to the coffin's rude sill,
At your smile sweet and candid, that seems alive still.



And I ask times unending my soul torn with doubt,
O why, pallid angel, your light has gone out,
For were you not blameless and wonderfully fair?
Have you gone to rekindle a star in despair?



I fancy on high there are wings without name,
Broad rivers of fire spanned by bridges of flame,
Strange castles that spires till the zenith up fling,
With stairways of incense and flowers that sing.



And you wonder among them, a worshipful queen,
With hair of bright starlight and eyes vespertine,
In a tunic of turquoise bespattered with gold,
While a wreath of green laurels does your forehead enfold.



O, death is a chaos, an ocean of stars gleaming,
While life is a quagmire of doubts and of dreaming,
Oh, death is an aeon of sun-blazoned spheres,
While life but a legend of wailing and tears.



Trough my head beats a whirlwind, a clamorous wrangle
Of thoughts and of dreams that despair does entangle;
For when suns are extinguished and meteors fail
The whole universe seems to mean nothing at all.



Maybe that one day the arched heavens will sunder,
And down through their break all the emptiness thunder,
Void's night o'er the earth its vast nothing extending,
The loot of an instant of death without ending.



If so, then forever your flame did succumb,
And forever your voice from today will be dumb.
If so, then hereafter can bring no rebirth.
If so, then this angel was nothing but earth.



And thus, lovely soil that breath has departed,
I stand by your coffin alone broken-hearted;
And yet I don't weep, rather praise for its fleeing
Your ray softly crept from this chaos of being.



For who shall declare which is ill and which well,
Is he, or he isn't? Can anyone tell?
For he who is not, even grief can't destroy,
And oft is the grieving, and seldom the joy.



To exist! O, what nonsense, what foolish conceit;
Our eyes but deceive us, our ears but cheat,
What this age discovers, the next will deny,
For better just nothing than naught a lie.



I see dreams in men's clothing that after dreams chase,
But that tumble in tombs ere the end of the race,
And I search in may soul how this horror to fly,
To laugh like a madman? To curse? Or to cry?



O, what is the meaning? What sense does agree?
The end of such beauty, had that what to be?
Sweet seraph of clay where still lingers life's smile,
Just in order to die did you live for a while?



O, tell me the meaning. This angel or clod?
I find on her forehead no witness of God.





*Translated by Corneliu M. Popescu

[miko]

Mihai Eminescu,poeti Kombëtar rumun.

Një poet i madh e njëkohësisht një njeri me ndjenja të "forta" ai i kushtoi gjithë krijimtarinë e qënien e tij,dashurisë së tij të vetme,Veronikës së tij të dashur...
Më poshtë sjell një nga poezitë e tij më të njohur,Lucifer-in.Një poezi që kaq shumë jam përpjekur ta përkthej në shqip por nuk ja kam dalë mbanë.Do përpiqem të përkthej nja dy të tjera (më të shkurtra e më të lehta lol) e do ti vendos.Për momentin Lucifer...




Lucifer


Once on a time, as poets sing
High tales with fancy laden,
Born of a very noble king
There lived a wondrous maiden.



An only child, her kinsfolk boon,
So fair, imagination faints;
As though amidst the stars the moon,
Or Mary amidst the saints.



From 'neath the castle's dark retreat,
Her silent way she wended
Each evening to the window-seat
Where Lucifer attended.



And secretly, with never fail,
She watched his double race,
Where vessels drew their pathless trail
Across the ocean's face.



And as intent she drank his light,
Desire was quickly there;
While he who saw her every night
Soon fell in love with her.



And sitting thus with rested head,
Her elbows on the sill,
Her heart by youthful fancy led
Did with deep longing fill.



While he, a brilliant shining spark,
Glowed always yet more clear
Towards the castle tall and dark
Where she would soon appear.


*

Until one night with shower of rays
He slips into her room,
As though a strange and silver haze
Did round about her loom.



And when at last the child to rest
Upon her sofa lies,
He lays her arms across her breast
And closes her soft eyes.



While where his ray on mirror lands
And is upon her couch redrifted,
It falls upon her throat and hands
And on her face uplifted.



A smile is on her lips it seems;
He in the mirror trembles,
For smooth his ray glides midst her dreams
And round her soul assembles.



And while she is in slumber gone
She murmurs through her sighs:
'Come down to me beloved one,
Fair prince of the clear skies.



Come down, good Lucifer and kind,
O lord of my aspire'
And flood my chamber and my mind
With your sweetest fire!'



And Lucifer beams still more bright
To hear her word's emotion;
Then like a comet in its flight
Dives down into the ocean.



And where his bolt is lost to view
The sea in whirlpool surges,
Till out of the unfathomed blue
A handsome youth emerges,



Who, leaping off the fretful wave,
Lightly through her casement passes;
And in his hand he holds a stave
Crowned with a wreath of grasses.



A prince indeed of royal stock,
With heavy hanging golden hair;
A purple winding-sheet his smock,
Hung round his shoulders bare.



A starry glow shines from his eyes,
His cheeks are deathly white;
A lifeless thing in living guise,
A youth born of the night.



'Down from the spheres do I come
Though dreadful the commotion,
My father is the vaulted dome,
My mother is the ocean.



For I have left my realm to keep
Obedience to your command;
Born of the zenith and the deep
Here I before you stand.



O come, fair child of royal birth,
Cast this your world aside,
For Lucifer has flown to earth
To claim you as his bride.



And you will live till time is done
In castles built of sky,
And all the fish will be your own,
And all the birds that fly.'



'O, beautiful you are, good Sire,
As but an angel prince could be,
But to the course that you desire
I never shall agree.



Strange, as your voice and vaster show,
I live while you are dead;
Your eyes gleam with an icy glow
Which fills my soul with dread.'


*

One day went past, and went past two,
Then o'er the castle dark,
Fair Lucifer again to view
Shone forth his lustrous spark.



And scarce his beam waved bright above,
Her dreams to him were borne,
Her heart again by aching love
And cruel longing torn.



'Come down, good Lucifer and kind,
O lord of my aspire,
And flood my chamber and my mind
With your sweetest fire!'


Now, as he heard her tender cry
With pain he faded out,
And lightning flew about the sky,
Which wheeled and rocked about;



Around the earth a lurid glow
Poured like a torrent race,
Till out of its chaotic flow
There grew a human face;



About the head dark wisps of hair
Girt with a crown of flame,
And through the sun-illumined air
Borne up by truth he came.



His arms of rounded marble sheen
Did 'neath a cloak of raven show,
And sad and thoughtful was his mien
And pallid was his brow.



Bright eyes he had that seemed to tell
Of strange chimeric bonds;
And deep they were as passion's spell,
And dark as moonlit ponds.



- Down from the spheres have I flown,
Though terrible my flight;
My father wears Apollo's crown,
My mother is the night.



O come, fair child of royal birth,
Cast this your world aside,
For Lucifer has flown to earth
To claim you as his bride.



A starry halo from the skies
About your hair will fall,
And you among the spheres will rise
The proudest of them all."



- O, beautiful you are, good Sire,
As but a demon prince could be,
But to the course of your desire
I never shall agree.



You wound me with your crude behest;
I dread what you extol;
Your heavy eyes, as though possessed,
Gleam down into my soul."


'But why should I descend to thee?
Far better what I give;
My days are all eternity,
While you but one hour live.'



'I would not chosen phrases seek,
Nor carefully my world arrange,
But though with human mouth you speak,
Your speech to me is strange.



Yet if you wish to prove your worth,
That I betroth myself to you,
Well, then come down to me on earth
And be a mortal too.'



'You ask my endless life above
To barter for a kiss.
Aye, I will show how my love,
How deep my longing is.



My birthright I will fling aside
To be reborn of sin, and I
Who to all rolling time am tied,
Will that great knot untie.'



At which he turned and went away
Midst a cloud of sombre pearl,
To renounce his birthright from that day
For the love of a mortal girl.


*

About this time young Catalin
Was a page boy of that house,
Who filled the festive cups with wine
At feast and royal carouse,



And carried high the regal train;
A foundling, brought by chance,
Born of a humble unknown strain,
Though roguish in his glance,



Round-cheeked, like rose-apples red,
Mischievous, bright-eyed,
He slipped with quick yet stealthy tread
To Catalina's side.



Upon my soul, Queen of romance!
Was such a darling ever?
Come Catalin, quick try your chance,
For now's your time or never.



At which he round her waist did twine
His arm in sudden wooing.
'Behave, you rascal Catalin,
Whatever are you doing?'



'By sorrow brooding all the while
You would your heart assuage,
But better you would turn and smile
And kiss just once your page.'



'I know not what your wishes are,
Leave me alone, you knave.
Ah me! The longing for that star
Will drive me to the grave.'



'If you don't know, and you would learn
How love is set about,
Don't recklessly my teaching spurn,
First fairly hear me out.



As trappers deftly birds pursue
With nets among the tree,
When I stretch out my arm to you,
Slip your arm thus round me.



Your eyes into my eyes must glow,
Nor turn away, nor close;
And when I lift you softly, so,
Rise gently on your toes.



And when my face is downwards bent
Your face turned up will stay,
That we may gaze with sweet intent
Forever and a day.



While should you wish at last to learn
The measure of love's bliss,
When hot my lips on yours do burn
Give back again my kiss."




Amused, yet with a girl's surprise
At what the youth acclaimed,
She blushed and turned away her eyes,
Half-willing, half ashamed.



'A chatterbox you were since small
With overmuch to tell,
Yet I had felt, in spite of all,
We'd suit each other well.'



But Lucifer's slow sailing spark
Crept up out of the sea
Over the horizon's arc,
Prince of eternity.



And now my wretched heart does bleed,
With tears my eyes grow dim,
Whene'er I watch the waves that speed
Across the sea to him.



While he looms with adoring ray
My grief to overthrow,
Yet ever climbs to heights away
Where mortals cannot go.



His silver beams that space defies
Sadly my watchers are
And I shall love him till I die,
Yet he be ever far.



And thus it is the days to me
Are drear as desert sand,
The nights filled with a mystery
I dare not understand...



'How childish is the way you speak.
Come on! Come, lets run away,
That all the world for us shall seek
Though no one finds the way



And we shall nothing of this life regret
But joyous live and sprightly,
Till soon your parents you'll forget,
Nor dream your longings nightly."


*

Lucifer set out and o'er
The sky his wings extended,
And million years flew past before
As many moments ended.



A sky of stars above his way,
A sky of stars below;
As lightning flash midst them astray
In one continuous flow.



Till round his primal chaos hurled
When out of causeless night
The first, uplaming dawn unfurled
Its miracle of light.



Still further flew he ere the start
Of things of form devoid,
Spurred by the yearning of his heart,
Far back into the void.



Yet where he reach's is not the born
Not yet where eye can see;
Beyond where struggling time was torn
Out of eternity.



Around him there was naught… And still,
Strange yearning there was yet,
A yearning that all space did fill,
As when the blind forget.



- O, Father God, this knot untie
Of my celestial birth,
And praised you will be on high
And on the rolling earth.



The price you ask is little count,
Give fate another course,
For you are of fair life the fount
And of calm death the source.



Take back this halo from my head,
Take back my starry lower,
And give to me, o God, instead
Of human love one hour.



Out of the chaos was I wrought,
In chaos would I be dispersed,
Out of the empty darkness brought,
For darkness do I thirst...'



'Hyperion, o child divine,
Don't thus your state disclaim,
Nor ask for miracle, nor sign
That has nor sense nor name.



You wish to be of man a son,
To be a star you scorn;
But men quick perish every one,
And men each day are born.



Yet stars burn on with even glow,
And it is fate's intending
That they nor time, nor place shall know,
Unfettered and unending.



Out of eternal yesterday
Into tomorrow's grave,
Even the sun will pass way
That other sun's shall lave;



The sun that every morn does rise
At last it's spirit gives;
For each thing lives because it dies,
And dies because it lives.



But you, Hyperion, never wane,
Night's miracle sublime,
But in the sky your place retain,
The wonder of all time.



So what strange fancy holds your mind?
What dreaming thus belates you?
Return to earth and there you'll find
The awakening that awaits you.'


*

Hyperyon did straightway go
To where through ages gone
His gleam upon the earth below
Nightly he had shone.



And it was evening when he came,
Night's darkness slow assembled,
And rose the moon a frozen flame
That in the water trembled,



And filled the forest's twilight clime
With a silver starry mist,
Where 'neath a tall and spreading lime
Two fair-haired children kissed.



'O, let me lay in lover's wise
My head upon your breast,
Beneath the wonder of your eyes,
In soft and fragrant rest.



In mystery's enchanted light
Pervade me with your charm,
And flood my soul through passion's night
With time's eternal calm.



O, quench my longing's eager thirst,
My aching doubts o'ercast,
For you to me are love the first
And of my dreams the last.'



Hyperion gazed down and knew
The fire their souls possessed;
For scarce the boy her nearer drew,
She clasped him to her breast.



A rain of petals in the air
That softly did enfold
Two fervent children strangely fair,
With locks of plated gold.



She, lost in love's enraptured flight
To heaven turned her eyes,
Saw Lucifer's down shining light
And whispered through her sighs:



'Come down, good Lucifer and kind,
O lord of my aspire,
And fill the forest and my mind
With your sweetest fire!'



And Lucifer, alone in space,
Her tender summons heard,
A planet o'er the ocean's face
That trembled at her word,



But did not plunge as'n former day,
And in his heart did cry:
"O, what care you, fair face of clay,
If it be he or I?



Still earth shall only earth remain,
Let luck its course unfold,
And I in my own kingdom reign
Immutable and cold."




*Translated by Corneliu M. Popescu