| Shah Ismail Khatai |
| Baharia [1] |
| Winter's shaken
off, and spring arrives! Rosebuds waken, garden plot revives, Birds all trill in aching harmony, Love's a thrilling flame, disturbing me. Earth is dressed in furry, downy green, Whispers press the silence once serene, Water rills lap at the cypress root, And turtle-doves coo plaintive notes that flute. Nature's budding smiles on meadow-grass Flash through dew-drop miles like beads of glass. Seaward rain clouds … rare as precious stones, Wings a carne and circles azure zones - Taloned falcon brings it down to earth. To silken blossom, apple-trees give birth; Playful, flees the Moon from clouds in vain, April showers drench the earth with rain, Nightingales in trilling song repine, Tulip petals hoard the dew's sweet wine, Steppe-quails deep and bookish thoughts pursue, Turtle-doves keep cooing, loo-a-loo… Drunk a mite are violets, unaware. Swans alight like feathered moving air: Preens with pride each bird has curven breast, For cygnet-peep is heard from hidden nest. Earth's a filigree of rainbow flowers, Trees make jubilee in leaf-green bowers, Bindweed seeks relief by river-bed, Cowling shirt in reefs above his head. Linden boughs display their dancing grace, Praising spring the rose lifts tender face, Rivers top their banks: a flood terrene, Garden trees put on their mantles green. Moonlight boon is pure on cherry-tree, Mute the moon, lost in a starry sea. Over meadow lies a flowered throw, Veils of snowy bloom on lilacs show, On flower petals rime of silver down. Narcissi rise and mime in paper crown, Argavan is vain of buds that blush, Doves would fain be near a blooming bush. When first sighs the early, pre-dawn breeze, Buds veil eyes in sepal-curl to tease. Orion spears with light a purple sky, A cypress rears in giant pride on high. Saucy flirt, the rose her power knows, Deeply hurt, the nightingale's love flows In notes as dour as any mullah knew. Meadow flowers cherish rime and dew, Morning finds Narcissus sleepy-eyed, The tulip, crowned and throned, in solemn pride Scorns the right of other suzeraine. Combs its spritely curls the whet-ear vain, Distilling ambergris upon the air, In murmured glee streams circle gardens fair. To mountain tarn gazelles come from the heights, Poppies turn their red lamps off at night, Blinding lovers so they lose their way. Peacock Ruler of the Garden sways His trailing swathe, his diadem askew; Rose petals bathe in cool and crystal dew - A Mecca spring of water, chastely clean. Gardens fling on togas red and green, A snowy turban wears each mountain crest, The Iris bears a dagger, in protest, To stab the eye that joylessness denotes. Whistles rise from flocks of startling throats, That answers find in bill and coo of doves. Cool the wind and flagrant as it moves All undeterred to shake the leaves to foam. Migrating birds fly far away to home: Raven, crake, and stork and wild goose clans. Planes oblique to landing on the lake. Owls shriek and hollow echoes wake, Through mountain glade is partridge laughter blown, Cypress shade at rooted feet lies prone With leaf-curl rim sun-dappled to a frieze. Birds sing hymns pitched in a thousand keys, The open lips of primroses pink stains, Young foals skip and shake their growing manes, Their shrilling neigh the whistling Kite-scream feigns. Lambkins play, it's lambing time again: Sheep drive to the mountains has begun. Sun-beams cut ill blood-red streamlets run. Gaily gambol partridges with zest Before they settle in the family nest. Cypress, metal-green, lips folds of sky, Left and right it gazes, towering high. The rose-child plights its troth, becomes a bride And wears a veil of crimson on her head. Chamois frail her fawn has fondly fed, Bounds away to feed on meadow-grass; Gazelle musk perfumed through the steppe-lands pass, The sweet musk seeps the black earth through and through. Wild herds come down to feed on meadows too. Flying cranes lament high in the sky Wind sustains for miles their anxious cry. The raven's heart one second misses beat At plunging dart of falcon's taking feet. Birds entice their nestlings to take wing. Sun - paradise for every scaly thing. Dews hang like pods on meadows, strung in rows. The bull's horn prods the earth with vicious blows. Each flower bears a thrusting bumblebee. Ants with care drag loads in company, Their damp eggs bring, to dry them in the sun. The rainbow swings its veil of prisms spun, Leaves consign their tremors to the air, Arrow-shaped, graceful beyond compare The Parrot speaks in beaten silver tongue - Oration all with sweetened words strung. Swallows found again their former nests: Birds homeward-bound have reached their native rest. [1] Baharia - spring song (Azerb.) Translated by Gladys Evans |
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