The merry-go-round

The merry-go-round like a wheel is turning,
Like our planet through Space so endlessly whirling;
Behind one another, on elephant, steed,
The children ride gaily, with gathering speed.

On the merry-go-round happy moments fly fast,
The little ones loudly clap hands in their mirth.
They think they're not turning around in the least,
That around them is spinning the earth.

So children rejoice, laugh merrily, play-
With the merry-go-round, Time changes too.
'Tis not you who are spinning round this world today,
But the world which is spinning round you.

Then children, be merry, for life is but brief;
'Twill pet and caress you while you are still young.
While you are yet children, the world will forgive,
Though you be capricious and sharp be your tongue.

Oh, the merry-go-round!.. A bevy of cranes
Soaring, wheels into line high above in the skies;
And mothers and fathers look on and rejoice
In the happiness beaming from their children's eyes.

A lone urchin stares from afar on their fun,
His eyes are wide open, he's sucking his thumb.
Round and round ride the children...
He looks on in glee,
Excited and thrilled at the view;
He can't keep his eyes from that huge wonder wheel,
And his head spins with visions of wishes come true.
The urchin looks on and he happily sighs,
"How lovely to ride round like this," say his eyes.
He's here on his own, though, and none can be
found To give him a ride on this merry-go-round.

But he - he is happy…
I cannot but wonder
At his big little heart…
O my soul,
Look and wonder!
For he can find pleasure just at the sight
Of somebody else's delight.

Translated by Louis Zellikoff

I am older than my Grandfather

My granddad died when he was eighty,
My dad-when he was sixty,
But I am older
In my forties
Than both my dad
And granddad.
Telephones
Telegraphs
Radio
Newspapers
They load the days and load the months And every hour
and every minute. . .
Condense the world, whose day is to the right,
And to the left-the night- Into one tiny room,
With Spring at your head, and Winter-at your feet.
Continents, poles are united by my speed.
In the heat and the flame
Of this speed,
Of this audacity,
My love
And my very nature
Have changed...
The greater the speed,
The shorter the distance.
Yesterday borrows minutes from
today
And today- From tomorrow.
The days are all mixed up,
And so are the months,
We have lost months, economising years.
In a single month I live as much
As my granddad did in a single year.
I'm a river flowing- down a mountain,
Skirting the mountain peak,
A stream' muddy in the mountains
And a clear river in the valley -
A river with hundreds of different moods.
I'm older than my father,
I'm older than my grandfather.

Translated by Louis Zellikoff

In One Building We Were Born

All are born without a name.
Names are given later on.
First there's one
And later on
A man gets dubbed with many names.
Ranks will come
with time...
In the home where mothers lie
Their offspring has one name,
However many there may be-
That one name is Baby.
His eyes are closed.
For him its all the same-
Be it day or night-
He has only one desire
and one word alone...
Just suppose
he wants to eat
or that he wants to drink,
Or, maybe, wants to sleep-
All that he can do
is cry...
Crying-
Is his only means.
By their crying Mothers know
What babies need,
And what they say.
Perhaps a cry was man's first word,
Primeval tongue,
And weeping first began
The alphabet of art,
sophistry,
and wisdom... In one building we were born-
All the same in every way.
We were born,
but of that We had no idea.
None could tell the difference
Between us by our height,
By our figures, or our faces…
That means we were all the same And our name was-
baby.
Diapers were our only clothes.
Our only word-a cry.
Our only food wag milk.
Things that came much later on,
I do not know who thought them up.
Our names were changed,
Our clothes were changed,
Our faces also changed.
Yet are we not still the same?
Tell me, then, what are they-
All these later changes?

Translated by Tom Botting

1. Observatory

Just a small place-
The observatory,
Yet you stand to outface
The Universe!
The end of your probing" cannot be found.
You study the infinite.
The field of your search can have no bound.
Your feet on our earth you firmly place,
While your head you thrust through the sky.
And look from the heights of outer space
Down upon our planet.
There is no bigger window for man's eye
In all the universe than you. . .
"Wait for me," calls Mother Earth,
"I shall follow through!"
Full of hope,
So proud of your worth!
For she has heard you called
The brains of our old world
Which, predestined,
through space is hurled.
For you The daylight Is dark midnight!
For starlight you reach-
That's your ABC-
Its thread runs through your speech.
At nightfall you see
Curved horizons close-
The heaven's eyelids part,
Astronomers then know
Their day's work will start.
For many years on far
They throw light
On some distant, glinting star.
Just a small place-
Yet each night
Your guests-new worlds-
Come face to face...
In your confines nigritude
In clarity dissolves.
The window of your building
Revolves upon new dawns...
Your edifice stretches out its peaceful hand
To ages yet to come.
On the mountain top you stand
a monument to the morrow,
While out there in space,
Star-eyed, there glows
A bright tomorrow.
Confined within your space
The future is born and grows.

Translated by Tom Botting

2. The Telescope

Mysteries in the sky,
Mysteries of our earth,
Mysteries through the universe-
How many wonders have you disclosed!
Your eye is fixed upon the heavens
It penetrates
Far beyond all reason!
Caught up by the love of man,
You led it out to interminate space-
To the very deepest,
The bottomless void.
You were the ship that first sailed,
You stand between Man and the Universe,
Logic and Hypothesis,
The Known and the Unknown.
The Unfathomed is your course and port of call,
Boundlessness is your golden crown,
And infinity your nearest pale,
Immensity-your starting point.

Translated by Tom Botting