THE GREEN VICTOR
(An Excerpt)
’Twas then it seems, that I began to weave
A daring, never-ending dream of life.
I felt so sweetly happy, yet so sad,
It seemed that through a fog I visioned all,
As in the fleeting moments, long ago
While listening to father’s beating heart,
And half in dream, I watched with keen intent
The rising of the moon above the woods.
My wondering eyes kept gazing high above
Resting upon the blossoms on the tree,
And higher, higher to the vaulting skies,
My father once had likened to an oak.
For from the birth of time it spreads above the earth
Its endless, all-embracing leafy top
Within whose branches nestles the golden bird
Known as the ‘Sun’ by those who in the shade
Of this eternal oak enjoy the fruits of life.
Behold! Bright stars massed yonder in the sky,
Words of surprise escaped my open lips
When I beheld that rare, bewildering scene.
Above my head a green star brightly shone;
Twos fairer than it e’er seemed before,
Glittered and then as quickly disappeared.
I felt the star, an omen meant for me,
Bowed low my head, and quietly returned.
From that night onward I have sought to find
With longing eyes, that strangely shining star;
But all in vain . . . When father led me far
Along a silvery river’s winding bank
Where in the midst of woods he built a home
That I forget the castle we had left behind,
On orders of our old ancestral Gods,
’Twas there again I sow my shining star
When in the moment of my mother’s death
I fell to depths of utter sheer despair,
And when I called upon the Gods of Death
To bring me solace and to comfort me,
The Star’s green lustre seemed a sign to me,
A note of greeting that my mother sent,
And my weary, troubled heart found peace again.
This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.
| Original: |
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
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| Translation: |
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was legally published within the United States (or the United Nations Headquarters in New York subject to Section 7 of the United States Headquarters Agreement) between 1929 and 1977 (inclusive) without a copyright notice. The longest-living author of this work died in 1987, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 36 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
