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.

(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."

(Hyperion)

Off went the star. And as he went
His wings grew more and more
And myriads of years were spent
For every hour that wore.

There was a sky of stars beneath,
A sky of stars o'erhead -
Like to a bolt with ne'er an death
Among the worlds he sped.

And from the valleys of the pit
He upwards spun his way;
He saw how lights sprang up and lit
As on the earliest day,

How like a sea that girded him,
And swarm and heaved about...
And flew and flew, an ache-born whim,
Till everything died out;

For where he reached there was no bourne,
To see there was no eye,
And from the chaos to be born
Time vainly made a try.

And there was nothing. There was, though,
A thirst that did oppress,
A gaping gulf above, below,
Like blind forgetfulness.

'From heavy, dark eternity
Deliver me, o Lord,
Forever hallowed may'st Thou be
And praised throughout the world!

O, ask me, Father, anything
But change my fortune now;
O'er Fount of Life, Thou art the king,
The death-dispenser, Thou;

My aura of eternity,
My fiery looks, retrieve,
And, in exchange, for love grant me
A single hour's leave.

From chaos come, I would return
To chaos, oh, most Blessed,
For out of rest eternal born,
I yearn again for rest.'

'Wan star, which from the world's confines
Doest with the cosmos rise,
Ask not for miracles and signs
That have no name or guise!

What, woulds't thou deem thyself to be
A fellow of those men?
If all of them drowned in the sea,
Men would be born again.

For it is men alone, who, blind,
Build castles in the air;
When waves have found their grave, behind,
Waves simmer everywhere;

Or lucky stars or Fate's disgrace
Are only humans' lot,
While we have neither time nor place
And death can strike us not.

From yesterday's eternal womb
Lives now whatever dies;
And if a sun should meet its doom,
New suns would mount the skies.

Although they seem e'er to ascend,
Death pricks them with his thorn,
All that are born die in the end
To live on a new morn.

Hyperion thou must remain
Wherever thou doest rise...
Wouldst thou hear my first word again
And so become more wise?

Will thou that I my mouth should ope
To sing the song that wiles
The mountains with their wooded slope
The sea's uncounted isles?

Or wilt thou prove by deeds thy worth,
That right and might canst helm?
I would in clods give thee the earth
To make it a great realm!

Or give you vessels, masts on masts,
And hosts that land and sea
ill cross, the power to ride the blast,
But death - that cannot be....

And who, think'st thou, thy death is worth?
Turn back, turn down once more
And see what on the straying earth
There is for thee in store.