European Elegies/Winter/The day is dark
55.THE DAY IS DARK
A day has dawned, a day of strangling darkness;The tears of angels drench the fainting earth;A cloud has blotted heaven, and cold starknessOf grief and fear has stilled the voice of mirth.
The heaven in anguisht gloom is overclouded,In anguisht gloom the livid landscape lies,The sun and moon are lost and overshrouded,Cosmic convulsion racks the dying skies.
For life has lost, and death is darkly leadingFear and despair behind the stricken rout,And on that field of carnage, crushed and bleeding,Beauty and trust and love are trampled out.
From the Albanian (Tosk dialect) of Naim Be Frasheri.