Page:Anthology of Modern Slavonic Literature in Prose and Verse by Paul Selver.djvu/319

 

How he proffers it thee,
This bounty withheld by godly caprice,
That of itself but moulders,
Unbeheld, unenjoyed and unglorified,
How he proffers it thee,
And thou smilest, thou only smilest;
And when thou art perceived from the midst of paradise
By that ancient tree,
Of every apple the forebear,
Earliest saint and earliest sinner,
Its wound was opened
Beneath that single dissevered offshoot,
And it quivered.
Apples are shaken over thee
And in every dimple
Singly is scattered
The forbidden fruit.
In every valley of thine singly is scattered
A cloister glistening.
Unto thy lips the fruits are clinging;
Is haply the fruit forbidden eke to thee?
Ha, scion of Tantalus, Frushka the Tantalide!—
Worms devour it, spectral worms,—and thou?
Thou smilest, thou only smilest!