Konstantin Balmont (b. 1867)
(Trans. Avrahm Yarmolinsky and Cecil Cowdrey)

WITH my fancy I grasped at the vague shadows straying,

At the vague shadows straying where the daylight had fled;

I ascended a tower, and the stairway was swaying,

And the stairway was swaying underneath my light tread.

And the higher I climbed, ever clearer were rounded,

Ever clearer were rounded dreaming hilltops aglow;

And from Heaven to Earth twilight voices resounded,

Twilight voices resounded from above and below.

And the higher I rose, strange horizons defining,

Strange horizons defining, did the summits appear;

And my eyes as I looked were caressed by their shining,

Were caressed by their shining, their farewell, sad and clear.

Now the night had appeared; Earth in darkness lay dreaming,

Earth in darkness lay dreaming, like a slumbering star,

While the smoldering sun, his dim embers still gleaming,

His dim embers still gleaming, shone for me from afar.

I had learned to ensnare the vague shadows far straying,

The vague shadows far straying, where the daylight had fled;

Ever higher I rose, and the stairway was swaying,

And the stairway was swaying underneath my light tread.

Konstantin Balmont (b. 1867)(Trans. Avrahm Yarmolinsky and Cecil Cowdrey)