Mihai Eminescu

Ode

(in ancient meter)

I really never thought that I will learn to die;

Forever young, invested in my mantle,  

I raised my dreamy eyes towards the star

                                                          Of solitude.

All of a sudden you, came up across my way,

So sweet, so painful, you, melodious torment...

I drank down to the bottom the unforgiving

                                                    Delight of death.

Woefully burned alive, suffering like Nessus,

Or like Hercules once poisoned by his clothes;

Waters of all oceans can not alleviate

My fire inside.

By my own illusion, ceaselessly consumed

Melted down by flames on my pyre I wail,

Could I rise again, radiant, from the ashes

                                                         Like the Phoenix?

Woe! Your tempting eyes vanish from my path,

Come back to my chest, sad indifference;

So I may die serene, restore me to myself

                                                            The way I were!

Translated by Paul Doru Mugur