Luminous Decay

With My Fancy I Grasped

With my fancy I grasped at the vague shadows straying.

At the vague shadows straying where the daylight had

fled;

I ascended a tower, and the stairway was swaying,

And the stairway was swaying underneath my light tread.

And the higher I climbed, ever clearer rounded,

Ever clearer were rounded dreaming hilltops aglow;

And from heaven to Earth twilight voices resounded.

Twilight voices resounded from above and below.

And the higher I rose, strange horizons defining,

Strange horizons defining, did the summits appear;

And my eyes as I looked were caressed by their shining.

Were caressed by their shining, their farewell, sad and

dear.

Now the night had appeared; Earth in darkness lay

dreaming,

Earth in darkness lay dreaming, like a slumbering star.

While the smoldering sun, his dim embers still gleaming.

His dim embers still gleaming, shone for me from afar.

I had learned to ensnare the vague shadows far straying.

The vague shadows far straying, where the daylight had

fled;

Ever higher I rose, and the stairway was swaying.

And the stairway was swaying underneath my light tread

Translated by Avrahm Yarmolinsky and Cecil Cowdrey