1. TO SLAVDOM.
With gesture of obeigance I bow myself down unto thy black earth,
Having set foot on thy domain, riddle of all the world,
Glorious, mighty, renowned, omnipotent Slavdom!
With eagerness my spirit trembles, unfurling its wings
And dauntless of eye, clutches at the hollow heavens,
Desiring now for glory of thee to soar loftily.
But bow should my voice be upraised high enough for thy world,
Where shall I, faced by thee, find strings potent enough not to be rended,
When my soul, enkindled with the flash of thy radiance,
Begins to thunder above? O would that, after my desire, I were able
To weave threads from the golden fabric of sunbeams,
That from shore to shore I might span them over the wan ocean,
And that I might take for my bow the gleaming rainbow aloft;
