Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855)

Translated by Richard Garnett

AIUDAH! See the blackening waves advance

Against the shore, like armies to the fray,

Then break in silvery clouds, while rainbows dance

In the long lines of diamonded spray!

They strike, they break, they die on the lagoon

Like stranded whales, their long triumphant swell

Now hides the prostrate shore, retreating soon

They leave the pearl, the coral, and the shell.

So, youthful bard, will Passion’s surges roll

On thy young heart, but do thou seize the lyre

And wake the soul of music, at her hymn

The threatening floods will suddenly retire,

And on the strand of thy delivered soul

Leave songs whose splendours never shall be dim.