TO THE STAR

So far it is athwart the blue
To where yon star appears,
That for its light to reach our view
Has needed thousand years.

Maybe those ages gone it shed
Its glow, then languished in the skies,
Yet only now its rays have sped
Their journey to our eyes.

The icon of the star that died
Slowly the vault ascended;
Time was ere it could first be spied,
We see now what is ended.

So is it when our love's aspire
Is hid beneath night's bowl,
The gleam of its extinguished fire
Enkindles yet our soul.

(Translated by Corneliu M. Popescu)