Nature Is A Sphinx...

 by Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev

Nature Is A Sphinx... 

Nature's a Sphinx. And her ordeal 

Is all the more destructive to mankind 

Because, perhaps, she has no riddle. 

Nor did she ever have one. 

Cicero 

The Roman orator spoke out

'midst civil war and strife:

'Too long I slumbered, and Rome's night

Has overtaken me upon my journey!'

True! But in parting with Rom's glory

From the Capitoline heights

You watched in all its grandeur

The setting of her bloody sun! . . .

Blessed are they who sojourned here

In this world's fateful hours-

For they were summoned by the angels

As guests to a great feast;

They witnessed spectacles majestic,

Were brought into the inner circle,

And, while there, drank immortal life

From heav'n's own chalice! 

Elysium Of Shades 

Elysium of shades this soul of mine,

Shades silent, luminous, and wholly severed

From this tempestuous age, these restless times,

Their joys and griefs, their aims and their endeavours.

Speak, O my soul, Elysium of shades!

What bonds have you with life? Speak, phantoms summoned

From out a day whose very memory fades -

What have you with this heartless mob in common? 

In Ocean Waves There's Melody... 

Est in arundineis modulatio musica ripis

In ocean waves there's melody

There's harmony within the clash of elements,

And a harmonious tuneful whisper 

Streams through the rippling rushes.

There's unperturbable order everywhere,

Full consonance in nature,

And only our illusory freedom 

Is out of tune with her.

Whence, how did this dischord arise?

And why, amidst the universal chorus,

Do human souls not sing as does the sea,

Why does the sentient reed sigh?

And from the earth unto the highest stars

Unanswered to this very day

A voice lamenting in the wilderness,

The soul protests despairingly?