Three Poems
by
Miklos Radnoti (1909-1944)
Translated from the Hungarian by Emery George
VARIATION ON SADNESS
Look, I came from the garden of sorrows,
across tearfilled rivers, shedding parks,
and meadows shaken with sobs,
I've come from the garden all pain,
where weeping was all that
the wind, the sun, the rain,
the fog, the moon, the snow ,
the sky sky sky brought also!
And on colors of rising dawn too I wept
when as it happened a ripe apple
fell ringing, tired, from the branch
or a bird's soaring arc
swept over earth and vanished
somewhere behind the cradling green.
I just came, wordless, across tearfilled rivers ,
deciduous park lands, and meadows ringing with
sobbing, too, silent; only my
weeping flowed on my virgin face,
which is now pale as the
dead moon of dawn, which spells
disgrace on the dawn dawn sky.
