Translation:The Akkerman Steppes

by Adam Mickiewicz

For other English-language translations of this work, see The Ackerman Steppe.

The Akkerman Steppes

I sailed onto waterless ocean expanses,

Wagon dives in grasslands and like a boat plowing,

Though rustling meadows ripples, through flowery flooding,

I'm avoiding the coral heads of the red thistles.

It darkens, not a trail, not a kurgan in sight,

I look upward, in search of the stars, the boat ushers;

Afar shines a cloud? Goddess of the Dawn rises?

It shines Dniester, visible Akerman's guiding light.

Halt! - The Silence! - I hear the clangor of cranes flying,

Further than hawk's eyes could have them discovered;

I hear a butterfly gently in the grasses swaying,

Where snake's slippy belly on herbage is crawling,

In such silence, with my ears, so alertly attuned,

I d' hear voice from Litwa*. Let's go, no one's calling!

• Lithuania (Polish/pron.'lit.fa'/)