 | Song of the Storm-Petrel |  |
260
SONG OF THE STORM-PETREL
BY MAXIM GORKY
Translated by George Jeshurun
[Description: drawing of figures plowing through snow storm]
[Description: drawing of storm; figures leaving to "promised
land."]
BETWEEN the ocean and the thunder,
Between black clouds and the gray water,
Speeds and floats and sweeps the petrel,
Before the storm, before the wildness—
Harbinger and mad foreboding.
Between black clouds and the gray water,
Speeds and floats and sweeps the petrel,
Before the storm, before the wildness—
Harbinger and mad foreboding.
Now he flouts the black sea-water,
Now he stabs into the cloud-ranks,
Hurling on them cries defiant,
Cries of war and tempest madness,
Cries of rage and white-hot passion,
And high strains of triumph battle
Upward through his storm-born crying.
Now he stabs into the cloud-ranks,
Hurling on them cries defiant,
Cries of war and tempest madness,
Cries of rage and white-hot passion,
And high strains of triumph battle
Upward through his storm-born crying.
Hark the moaning gulls around him,
Hark their shuddering calls of terror
At his fearful fighting pæan.
Fain, fain they are to sink and hide them
Far below the rush and wildness
Down to utter dark and quiet
In the caverned ocean shelter,
While the frailest soul, the penguin,
Hides and flutters, weakly yearning
For the rocks to fall and hide him.
Hark their shuddering calls of terror
At his fearful fighting pæan.
Fain, fain they are to sink and hide them
Far below the rush and wildness
Down to utter dark and quiet
In the caverned ocean shelter,
While the frailest soul, the penguin,
Hides and flutters, weakly yearning
For the rocks to fall and hide him.
261
But the one free soul, the petrel,
Floats unharmed above the chaos,
Gray with anger, stanch with raging,
While the darkness, growing blacker,
Hangs above the sea-flung mountains,
And the topmost, ever madder,
Leap and dash in frenzied laughter,
Toss their curses as to welcome
Crash and hurricane and lightning.
Floats unharmed above the chaos,
Gray with anger, stanch with raging,
While the darkness, growing blacker,
Hangs above the sea-flung mountains,
And the topmost, ever madder,
Leap and dash in frenzied laughter,
Toss their curses as to welcome
Crash and hurricane and lightning.
Listen to the rolling whirlwind,
Striving for the sea's uprooting.
Now he grasps with rage titanic
One vast shrieking hell of water,
Dashing it upon the sea-rocks,
Where it sinks with one vast moaning
In a grave of tearful whiteness.
Striving for the sea's uprooting.
Now he grasps with rage titanic
One vast shrieking hell of water,
Dashing it upon the sea-rocks,
Where it sinks with one vast moaning
In a grave of tearful whiteness.
And the petrel in the cloud-heights,
The one rival of the lightning,
Scatters down his splendid crying,
Drawing from the very danger
Urge and will to cry forever.
The one rival of the lightning,
Scatters down his splendid crying,
Drawing from the very danger
Urge and will to cry forever.
There he's laughing like a demon,
Like a god of all the tempest,
Laughing, calling, crying, sobbing,
At the clouds that strive to veil him.
Laughter mingles with his sobbing
At the storm-wind's futile anger.
He the demon, wily, subtle,
He has long heard weaker singing.
Something tells him not forever
Can the glorious sun be hidden.
Not forever, not forever.
Like a god of all the tempest,
Laughing, calling, crying, sobbing,
At the clouds that strive to veil him.
Laughter mingles with his sobbing
At the storm-wind's futile anger.
He the demon, wily, subtle,
He has long heard weaker singing.
Something tells him not forever
Can the glorious sun be hidden.
Not forever, not forever.
| Song of the Storm-Petrel | |