Work Text:
Aspen
Upon rooftops looms the gloomy sky
and a coat of damp mist roams afloat;
like translucent, tender tissue
it veils the roads I have sought.
In stifling stupor, people and beasts
and greens, all appear dead
- save for one fluttering aspen,
tall and unyielding to crippling dread.
Keep on fluttering, o aspen!
That dark urge which drives you still
no one's been able to comprehend
and no one ever will.
What your visage means for me
is this incessant life I endure;
barely out of darkness' reach,
chased by currents most impure.
Eternal victor, ever randy,
above do-gooders and evil sods,
it is now as it's ever been
stronger than death, mightier than gods.
Keep on fluttering, o aspen!
With yearning and grief I bear your brand.
I am long accustomed to all manner of pain
walking with despair hand in hand.
And when I think upon this life,
relentless as it was before,
my soul is gripped by a thick, black shroud
- my own monstrous shadow of yore.
But akin to guile of spiders' webbing
intricately spun to form a bond,
your shivers bind me forever more
to eternal life and beyond.
And at the bottom of my mournful soul
like premonition of some stronger will,
cheerful, like your gentle leaves,
my dark urges flutter still...
Original poet: Milan Rakic (1876-1938)
Loose translation from Serbian to English