Translation:Baltic to Tatras, sonnets / I. The Sigh of the Baltic

by Stanislaw Tarnowski

I.

The Sigh of the Baltic

   When sad like a homesickness, volatile like a dreams
   From amber coasts winds will fly to you
   And will crash with a groan of rocky Tatras
   Will you recognize in them our sighs for you?

      When somewhere from the dark spruce a little bird chirp
      Let in his complaint our homesickness will come to you:
      When the streams ^[1] three-days' drizzly weather floods you
      You know that it's for you shed our tears!

   To us: or sandy whirlwind ^[2] the gale sweeping into eyes ^[3]
   Or the sky clouding with ill-omened cloud
   Or balsamic smell from meadows blows flowers towards us
   Or storm down to the bottom of bottomlesses stop [...] by the sea: ^[4]

      All reminds us; all, that on the world
     The first of the men was Adam – the first of the flowers [was] Rose.

1. „the streams" – the streams of the rain.
2. Or „sandy tornado”.
3. Or „the gale blowing into eyes”.
4. The ellipsis: „morzem wstrzyma burza:” – stop [our journey] by the sea: