Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889)

English version © by Adrian G. Sahlean

 

Glossa*

 

Time goes by, time comes along,

All is old and all is new;

What is right and what is wrong,

You must think and ask of you;

Have no hope and have no fear,

Waves that rise can never hold;

If they urge or if they cheer,

You remain aloof and cold.

  

To our sight so much will glisten,

Many sounds will reach our ear…

Who could take the time to listen

And remember all we hear?

Keep aside from all that patter,

Seek yourself, far from the throng,

When with loud and idle clatter

Time goes by, time comes along.

  

Nor forget the tongue of reason

Or its even scales depress

When the moment, changing season,

Wears the mask of happiness —

It is born of reason’s slumber

And may last a wink as true:

For the one who knows its number

All is old and all is new.

 

Be as to a play, spectator,

As the world unfolds before:

You will know the heart of matter

Should they act two parts or four;

When they cry or tear asunder

From your seat enjoy along

And you’ll learn from art to wonder

What is right and what is wrong.

 

Past and future, ever blending,

Are the twin sides of same page:

New start will begin with ending

When you know to learn from age;

All that was or be tomorrow

We have in the present, too,

But what’s vain and futile sorrow

You must think and ask of you.

 

For the living cannot sever

From the means we’ve always had:

Now, as years ago, and ever,

Men are happy or are sad:

Other masks, same play repeated;

Diff’rent tongues, same words to hear;

Of your dreams so often cheated,

Have no hope and have no fear.

 

Hope not when the villains cluster

By success and glory drawn:

Fools with perfect lack of luster

Will outshine Hyperion!

Fear it not, they’ll push each other

To reach higher in the fold,

Do not let them call you brother,

Waves that rise can never hold.

 

Sounds of siren songs call steady

Toward golden nets, astray;

Life attracts you into eddies

To change actors in the play;

Steal aside from crowd and bustle,

Do not look, seem not to hear

From your path, away from hustle,

If they urge or if they cheer;

 

If they reach for you, go faster,

Hold your tongue when slanders yell;

Your advice they cannot master,

Don’t you know their measure well?

Let them talk and let them chatter,

Let all go past, young and old:

Unattached to man or matter,

You remain aloof and cold.

 

You remain aloof and cold

If they urge or if they cheer;

Waves that rise can never hold,

Have no hope and have no fear;

You must think and ask of you

What is right and what is wrong;

All is old and all is new,

Time goes by, time comes along.

 

 

(1883)