< Modern Russian Poetry

SONNET XV

(From the Sonnet-cycle "Lunaria")


Pure pearl of silence brooding on the sky,
Presider o'er conception, lamp of dreams,
Altar of nightly spells, of crystal gleams,
Queen of the waters where thou lov'st to lie,
With what desire, where the long waves sigh,
Through my dark crucifixions, toward thy beams,
Toward Dian, toward fierce Hecate, there streams
The vision yet unlived that shall not die.

How strange thy diamond delirium shines
In thy fair hollows, in thy joyless lines,
And in the flashing mica of thy seas.
In listless ether thou art horror's face,
Thou, longing's cry, whom icy gaolers freeze,
Thou, dead world's avid corpse, cast out on space.

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Original:

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1927.


The author died in 1932, so this work is also in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 80 years or less. This work may also 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.

 
Translation:

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1927. It may be copyrighted outside the U.S. (see Help:Public domain).

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