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Modern Russian Poetry/The Birch Tree

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1562769Modern Russian Poetry — The Birch TreeSergey Gorodetsky

THE BIRCH TREE

Upon an amber day I loved you first,
When, summoned by the radiant azure,
From every grateful twig there burst
Sweet indolence in dripping measure.

Your whitely shining body gleamed as white
As heady foam on lakes unfolding,
Gay laughing Lel[1] drew out the bright
Black hair, its beauty lightly holding.

Himself, the god Yarila[2] crowned your hair
With garlands green in gorgeous pleasure,
And flung it, plaited, to the air:
Green glory tossed upon the azure.


  1. The Russian Pan.
  2. The Russian Dionysos.

 This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.

Original:

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1967, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 56 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse

Translation:

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse