The Moderns (with Picture)

I wrote this poem as my first year of Harvard was drawing to a close two years ago.

A couple of months ago a great friend of mine shared some of my poems with his girlfriend. He kept this a secret, and I only found out this past weekend when he told me his girlfriend had actually put several of the poems to sketch form.

Tuesday night he promised to email one of them to me, and so he has.

Below you see the result of what I believe is a marvelous rendition and translation of the original idea.

A great job to J, and a thank you to the Admiral!

I hope you all enjoy it.

Love Note to the Sun

I see you born at perfect heights,

with pink dripping through your seams,

lavender on the light blue night,

on golden steps — and beams…and beams…

And I see you when you disappear,

in the final burst of your cascade -

when all hues melt, and then cohere,

into a color of no name.

I write all this to you this eve,

to honor a phrase I have heard,

and every girl, who would agree,

beauty has no mirror but our words.

So even if you have no ears,

Please read them out from afar.

I will place them under glass, here.

May you see the beauty that you are.

The Prodigal Son by Ivan Bunin

I have decided to periodically publish Christian poems from other authors who I enjoy, and who I think you might enjoy as well. The first is by Ivan Bunin, the first Russian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Fleeing the Soviet Regime in 1919, he died in 1953 in Paris, France.

The Prodigal Son ( Written in 1918 )

-

The flowers, the bees, the grass, the corn,

and the azure, and midday heat…

The time will arrive for the Lord to ask the prodigal son,

in your life, were you happy?

-

I will forget all that happened,

and remember only these things:

the paths between the corn and grass.

And from tears, I will not manage to answer,

having fallen to your knees of mercy.

-

Translation my own.

Original Version below.

-

И цветы, и шмели, и трава, и колосья,

И лазурь, и полуденный зной…

Срок настанет — Господь сына блудного спросит:

«Был ли счастлив ты в жизни земной?»

-

И забуду я все — вспомню только вот эти

Полевые пути меж колосьев и трав —

И от сладостных слез не успею ответить,

К милосердным Коленам припав.

Du Nachbar Gott by Rainer Maria Rilke

You, God, are my neighbor,

and if it seems I try to wake you in the night,

with hard knocks upon your door,

it is because I seldom hear you breathe,

and know that you are alone in your room.

-

If you need something, no one is there,

even to bring you a drink if you are thirsty.

But I am always here, so close, listening.

Just give a sign.

-

Only a thin wall is between us,

and even if just by accident — by a call of your mouth or mine –

it could fall down – without a sound at all.

–

Du, Nachbar Gott, wenn ich dich manchesmal,

in langer Nacht mit hartem Klopfen stoere,

so ists, weil ich dich selten atmen hoere,

und weiss: Du bist allein im Saal.

Und wenn du etwas brauchst, ist keiner da,

um deinem Tasten einen Trank zu reichen:

Ich horche immer. Gieb ein kleines Zeichen.

Ich bin ganz nah.

Nur eine schmale Wand ist zwischen uns,

durch Zufall; denn es koente sein:

ein Rufen deines oder meines Munds –

und sie bricht ein

ganz ohne Laerm und Laut.

Translation my own.