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Anonymous translation
WHEN the tired sun turneth sleeper, | |
| But ere the moon hath yet awoken, | |
| I love, O, how I love, to roam | |
| By the grand resounding Dnieper, | |
| Where’er its billows may have broken | 5 |
| Into the hoarest foam. | |
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| As on Jordan’s banks the leper | |
| Oft left of old his ghastly ailment, | |
| So I, on thy tempestuous shore, | |
| O thou grand resounding Dnieper, | 10 |
| Feel nightly as though no assailment | |
| Of woe could wound me more! | |
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| Up those cliffs which ever steeper | |
| Through twilight loom I often clamber, | |
| To see thy black waves rush and roll, | 15 |
| O mine own, my glorious Dnieper, | |
| And feel the sunset’s gold and amber | |
| Deep-dye my thoughts and soul! | |
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| Scale these heights, thou poor weak weeper, | |
| Thou who, alas! art wont to diet | 20 |
| Upon thy bitter heart for food, | |
| And gaze down upon the Dnieper! | |
| The sight will change to dreamy quiet | |
| Thy dark and troubled mood! | |
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| Come, too, thou who seekest deeper | 25 |
| Emotions from the scenery round thee; | |
| And, though thy wanderings rivalled Cain’s, | |
| Thou shalt feel, anigh the Dnieper, | |
| As though some spell-word had unbound thee | |
| From Time’s ten thousand chains! | 30 |
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| Thou hast more than wert thou reaper | |
| Of all the gems and golden treasure | |
| Sown and long-buried in the deeps | |
| Even of this vast cryptful Dnieper. | |
| Wealth for thy soul beyond all measure | 35 |
| Its boiling surface keeps! | |
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| Richer joys there be—yet cheaper— | |
| Than those which slay in palaced city. | |
| Take all thou wilt, great world, for thine,— | |
| Give me freedom and the Dnieper, | 40 |
| And Pride may wreak its wrath or pity | |
| On other heads than mine! | |
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