Alissa Firsova:
1. The secret of the world
The deep well surely knows,
Once all were deep and silent,
And everybody knew it.
Like magic words, babbled
And not grasped in the ground,
So it goes from mouth to mouth.
The deep well surely knows;
Bending over, a man understood it,
Captured it and then lost it.
And spoke madly and sang a song -
On this dark mirror stooped
Once a child and is removed.
And grows up and knows nothing about itself
And becomes a woman, that one loves
And - how wonderful how love gives!
How love deep tidings gives! -
That makes things, poorly known,
In its kisses deeply shown…
In our words it lies inside,
The way the beggar’s foot treads on the pebbles,
Overlooking the precious jewels.
The deep well surely knows,
Once though they did all know,
Now twitches in a circle a dream aflow.
2. Song of the World
Fly by, Time, you are my Maid,
Adorn me, when it’s nightfall, adorn me, at the break of day,
Weave my hair, play around my shoe,
I am the lady, the maid are you.
Heia!
But once you enter angrily,
The stars shoot shining slantingly,
The wind penetrates the tall hall,
The sun goes out, the light gets dull,
The floor gives a deathly glow,
There you become my Mistress after all!
O weh!
And I your maid, weak and forlorn,
God will mourn!
Fly by, Time! The Time is still far!
Heia!
3. What is the world?
What is the world? An eternal poem,
That out of the spirit of divinity shines and glows,
That out of the wine of wisdom foams and flows,
That out of the sound of love to us speaks
And every being’s varying soul,
A ray is, that out of this Sun breaks,
A verse, that itself to a thousand others weaves,
That unnoticed fades, extinguishes, withers.
And yet also a world of its own,
Full of sweetly-secret, never-heard sounds,
With its own, undesecrated beauty endowed,
And no other resonance, reflection.
And even if you read it till the end,
A book, that you in life cannot comprehend.