Elegy for a Bud

Yesterday I was caressing your eyelids and embracing your proud neck,
and in my heart were honeyed hopes for your tomorrow.
Yesterday you were joyous, your calyxes parting over a kindly smile,
and I took comfort in you,
and the birds took comfort in you,
and the leaves enfolded you, and you were pampered and coquettish —
so why did you fall to the earth, wrapping your face in her breast?

***

Yesterday there were sweet dreams upon your eyelids,
and good fruits within you,
and redness in your cheeks,
and greenness in your body,
and fragrance and spirit in your shade —
before you fell!

***

Yesterday nourishment was carrying life to you,
and you were, in the tree, the embryo in the mother's womb,
the poem on the poet's lip,
the dream on the artist's eyelid,
the melody on the wing of the string —
so why did you fall?

***

Have you some grievance, that we may hear it?
Was the birds' playfulness painful?
Or the melody clamorous?
Or the nourishment bitter?
Was my hand rough?
Or the sun cruel?
Or life within you heavy?

***

Or did you wish to remain a bud,
that the cycle of time should not turn with you?
That your closed eyelids should never open —
so that dreams might keep hovering about them,
and lips keep kissing them,
and hands keep caressing them?!

***

And since we have not divined your secret:
will you not tell us of your enigmatic smile,
which lingers still upon your lips?
And will you not tell us of the birds you loved?
And the breaths you drew in?
And the visions you beheld?
And after all: perhaps your suicide is other than we supposed —
perhaps it is a mad adventure into the hidden places of life!...

1940