To the Adriatic
From Wikisource
| To the Adriatic by , translated by Robert Elsie |
| Adriatikut, written in December 1912, published in the volume Psallme murgu, Bucharest 1930, translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie, and first published in English by Robert Elsie in History of Albanian literature, New York 1995, vol. 1, p. 362-363 |
I have beheld you, Adriatic, I have beheld you,
A nymph from the twinkling heavens
Sparkling with pearls, your breasts
Heaving gracefully like a sylph's.
I knelt before you as before a goddess,
An apparition of untold beauty.
The rapture I felt, I could not endure,
And departed, tears streaming down my cheeks.
Like molten gold you shimmer,
A fabled palace full of magic,
You sway like maidens in the meadow.
Of youthful grace is your rise and fall,
Sweet memories, a world of wonder
Like a vision of divinity itself.
