O MOTHER...

O mother, darling mother, lost in time's formless haze
Amidst the leaves' sweet rustle you call my name always;
Amidst their fluttering murmur above your sacred grave
I hear you softly whisper whenever the branches wave;
While over your tomb the willows their autumn raiment heap...
Forever wave the branches and you forever sleep.

When l shall die, beloved, do not beside me mourn,
But break a branch of blossom that does the lime adorn,
And take it very softly, and plant it at my head;
I'll feel its shadow growing as on the soil it's shed;
And watered by the tears that you for sorrow weep...
Forever grow that shadow, and l for ever sleep.

And should it be together that we shall die one day,
They shall not in some cemetery our separate bodies lay,
But let them dig a grave near where the river flows
And in a single coffin them both together close;
That l to time eternal my love beside me keep...
Forever wails the water, and we for ever sleep.

(Translated by Corneliu M. Popescu)