Juhan Liiv

Issue #
8
May 31, 2016

Lumehelbeke / A Small Flake of Snow

Lumehelbeke
tasa, tasa
liugleb aknale,
tasa… tasa …

Nagu viibiks ta
tasa, tasa,
mõtleks tulles ka:
tasa, tasa!

Miks nii tuksud, rind?
Tasa, tasa!
Rahu otsib sind –
tasa, tasa…

[1891]

A small flake of snow,
silence, silence,
drifts past the window,
silence… silence…

As if it were waiting,
silence, silence,
as if contemplating:
silence, silence!

My heart, why beat so?
Silence, silence!
Peace waits for you —
silence, silence…

Translated from the Estonian into English by Jüri Talvet and H. L. Hix
Reprinted with permission of the translators from:
Juhan Liiv, Snow Drifts, I Sing: Selected Poems. Ed. Jüri Talvet. Trans. Jüri Talvet and H. L. Hix. Guernica Editions, 2013.

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