Mihai Eminescu - translations by Adrian G. Sahlean & al.


home / eve star-cuclin / eve star-hastie / eve star-levitki / eve star-walker / eve star-grimm / eve star-c.m.popescu
glossa / unto the star / over tree tops / wretched dionis / stars in the sky / store
The
Legend
of
the
Evening
Star

Legenda
Luceafarului

Translators Side-By-Side -The 'Cosmic Flight'

On this page, you are invited to sample a fragment from 'Legenda Luceafarului' /' The Legend of the Evening Star' in my rendition, as well as versions of the same text by other well-known Eminescu translators. Also side-by-side you will find links to versions of 'Glossa' ('Glossa'), 'La Steaua' ('Unto The Star') and 'Peste vârfuri' ('Over Tree Tops'). This is a unique feature for poetry sites, meant to give the reader a better insight into the difficulties of translating Eminescu's content, musicality, style of language, etc. (more on this in the Translator's Note).The featured translators, listed alphabetically, are Andrei Bantas, Dimitrie Cuclin, Petre Grimm, Roy McGregor-Hastie, Leon Levitki, Sylvia Pankhurst, Corneliu M. Popescu and Brenda Walker. Their name will appear in the navigation bar only if applicable to the featured poem. The poem is listed under my English title, while the often divergent title translation by others will be mentioned before each author's text.

The Evening Star is included in the 'Eternal Longing, Impossible Love' cd/book project presented elsewhere on the site. You can listen to the 'Cosmic Flight' as narrated by American Repertory Theatre actor Jeremy Geidt by clicking here


home / eve star-cuclin / eve star-hastie / eve star-levitki / eve star-walker / eve star-grimm / eve star-c.m.popescu
glossa / unto the star / over tree tops / wretched dionis / stars in the sky / store
Mihai Eminescu

(Legenda Luceafarului)

Porni luceafarul.Cresteau
In cer a lui aripe,
Si cai de mii de ani treceau
In tot atitea clipe.

Un cer de stele dedesupt,
Deasupra-i cer de stele-
Parea un fulger nentrerupt
Ratacitor prin ele.

Si din a chaosului vai,
Jur imprejur de sine,
Vedea ca-n ziua cea dentii,
Cum izvorau lumine;

Cum izvorind il inconjor
Ca niste mari de-a-notul...
El zboara, gand purtat de dor,
Pan' piere totul, totul;

Caci unde-ajunge nu-i hotar,
Nici ochi spre a cunoaste,
Si vremea-ncearca in zadar
Din goluri a se naste.

Nu e nimic si totusi e
O sete care-l soarbe,
E un adinc asemene
Uitarii celei oarbe.

-De greul negrei vecinicii,
Parinte, ma dezleaga
Si laudat pe veci sa fii
Pe-a lumii scara-ntreaga;

O, cere-mi, Doamne, orice pret,
Dar da-mi o alta soarte,
Caci tu izvor esti de vieti
Si datator de moarte;

Reia-mi al nemuririi nimb
Si focul din privire,
Si pentru toate da-mi in schimb
O ora de iubire...

Din chaos, Doamne,-am aparut
Si m-as intoarce-n chaos...
Si din repaos m-am nascut'
Mi-e sete de repaos.

-Hyperion, ce din genuni
Rasai c-o-ntreaga lume,
Nu cere semne si minuni
Care n-au chip si nume;

Tu vrei un om sa te socoti,
Cu ei sa te asameni?
Dar piara oamenii cu toti,
S-ar naste iarasi oameni.

Ei numai doar dureaza-n vint
Desarte idealuri-
Cand valuri afla un mormint,
Rasar in urma valuri;

Ei doar au stele cu noroc
Si prigoniri de soarte,
Noi nu avem nici timp, nici loc,
Si nu cunoastem moarte.

Din sinul vecinicului ieri
Traieste azi ce moare,
Un soare de s-ar stinge-n cer
S-aprinde iarasi soare;

Parand in veci a rasari,
Din urma moartea-l paste,
Caci toti se nasc spre a muri
Si mor spre a se naste.

Iar tu, Hyperion, ramai
Oriunde ai apune...
Cere-mi cuvantul meu dentai-
Sa-ti dau intelepciune?

Vrei sa dau glas acelei guri,
Ca dup-a ei cantare
Sa se ia muntii cu paduri
Si insulele-n mare?

Vrei poate-n fapta sa arati
Dreptate si tarie?
Ti-as da pamantul in bucati
Sa-l faci imparatie.

Iti dau catarg linga catarg,
Ostiri spre a strabate
Pamantu-n lung si marea-n larg,
Dar moartea nu se poate...

Si pentru cine vrei sa mori?
Intoarce-te, te-ndreapta
Spre-acel pamant ratacitor
Si vezi ce te asteapta.

Adrian G. Sahlean

(The Legend of the Evening Star)

So left the Evening Star. His wings
Grew large across the sky
As thousand years of reach would spring
And at a wink go by;

A canopy of stars below,
Above, a starry dome:
An endless lightning seemed to flow
And through the heavens roam

And in the dark that streamed around,
As on the first day's morn,
He glimpsed the chaos vales unbound
From where the light is born.

He flies aswim through seas of light
With love on wings of thought ...
Until all perishes from sight,
Until all turns to naught;

He goes where there's no bound or bourn
Nor is there eye to know,
And time itself from voids uptorn
Struggles in vain to grow;

For there is naught, yet it is there
A thirst that draws him on,
A depth that lingers, like the snare
Of blind oblivion...

"Father, from dark eternity
My burden now reverse
And your name ever hallowed be
In all the universe!

Ask me, Lord, anything, but give
Me fate of different breath,
For you're the spring of lives to live,
And giver are of death;

Immortal nimbus overturn,
From eyes remove the fire,
But for all give me in return
One hour of desire ...

From chaos, Lord, I came alive,
My thirst to chaos goes
And, of repose once born, I strive
To go back to repose!"

"Hyperion, you out of chasm
Arise with worlds of grace!
Ask not for wonder or phantasm
That has no name or face;

To be a human is your call?
A man, is that your mind?
Oh, let the humans perish all,
Others would breed in kind.

Men only build to nothingness
Vain dreams in noble guise:
When waves to silent tomb quiesce
New waves again will rise;

Men merely live by stars of luck
And star-crossed fatefulness;
We have no death to prove our pluck
Nor place or time possess.

From the eternal yesterday
Today lives what will die,
Should sun from heavens once decay
New suns would light the sky

And seem to rise to endless morn
While death in wait would lie,
For all die only to be born
And all are born to die.

But you, Hyperion, shall live
Wherever you may set ...
So ask me now the Word to give:
That you can wisdom get?

Or, maybe, give you voice and bring
Sweet music to your song
So forests in the mountain sing
And oceans go along?

Perhaps you justice wish to make?
Your strength with deeds to prove?
The earth in pieces I could break
So you can kingdoms move!

I'll give you armies march their stride
To steal the world its breath,
Long ships upon seas far and wide ...
But I won't give you death!

And who to die for, now behold!
Of what awaits, beware!
Go back and watch that wand'ring mould
And heed to what lies there."

Dimitrie Cuclin

(The Evening Star)

Then Evening-Star went out. His wings
Grow, into heavens dash,
And on his way millenniums
Flee in less than a flash.

Below, a depth of stars; above,
The heaven stars begem, -
He seems an endless lightning that
Is wandering through them.

And from the Chaos' vales he sees
How in an immense ring
Round him, as in the World's first day,
Lights from their sources spring;

How, springing, they hem him like an
Ocean that swimming nears...
He flees carried by his desire
Until he disappears.

For that region is boundless and
Searching regards avoids
And Time strive vainly there to come
To life from the dark voids.

'Tis nought. 'Tis, though, thirst that sips him
And which he cannot shun,
'Tis depth unknown, comparable
To blind oblivion.

-"From that dark, choking, endlessness
Into which I am furled,
Father, undo me, and for e'er
Be praised in the whole world!

Ask anything for this new fate
For with mine I am through:
O hear my prayer, O my Lord, for
Thou gives life and death too.

Take back my endlessness, the fires
That my being devour
And in return give me a chance
To love but for an hour!

I've come from Chaos; I'd return
To that my former nest...
And as I have been brought to life
From rest, I crave for rest!"

-"Hyperion, that comest from
The depths with the world's swarm,
Do not ask signs and miracles
That have no name nor form.

Thou wantest to count among men,
Take their resemblance vain;
But would now the whole mankind die
Men will be born again.

But they are building on the wind
Ideals void and blind;
When human waves run into graves
New waves spring from behind.

Fate's persecutions, lucky stars,
They only are to own;
Here we know neither time nor space,
Death we have never known.

From the eternal yesterday
Drinks what to-day will drain
And if a sun dies on the sky
A sun quickens again.

Risen as for ever, death though
Follows them like a thorn
For all are born only to die
And die to be reborn.

But thou remainest wheresoe'er
Thou wouldst set down or flee.
Thou art of the prime form and an
Eternal prodigy.

Thou wilt now hear the wondrous voice
At whose bewitched singing
Mounts woody get skipping to skies
Into sea Island sinking!

Perhaps thou wilt more: show in deeds
Thy sense of justice, might,
Out of the earth's lumps make an empire
And settle on its height!

I can give thee millions of vessels
And hosts; thou, bear thy breath
O'er all the lands, o'er all the oceans:
I cannot give thee death.

For whom thou wantest then to die?
Just go and see what's worth
All that is waiting there for thee
On that wandering earth!


home / eve star-cuclin / eve star-hastie / eve star-levitki / eve star-walker / eve star-grimm / eve star-c.m.popescu
glossa / unto the star / over tree tops / wretched dionis / stars in the sky / store