Pe lângă plopii fără soț
- Author
- Mihai Eminescu
- Date
- 1883
- Language
- Romanian
- Country
- First published
- 1883
- Themes
- unrequited love, memory, night
The source
Pe lângă plopii fără soţ
Adesea am trecut;
Mă cunoşteau vecinii toţi -
Tu nu m-ai cunoscut.
Down where the lonely poplars grow
How often I have erred;
My steps that all the neighbours know
You only have not heard.
La geamul tău ce strălucea
Privii atât de des;
O lume toată-nţelegea -
Tu nu m-ai înţeles.
Towards your window lighted through
How oft my gaze has flown;
A world entire my secret knew
You only have not known.
De câte ori am aşteptat
O şoaptă de răspuns!
O zi din viaţă să-mi fi dat,
O zi mi-era de-ajuns;
A word, a murmur of reply
How often did I prey !
What matters then if I should die,
Enough to live that day;
O oră să fi fost amici,
Să ne iubim cu dor,
S-ascult de glasul gurii mici
O oră, şi să mor.
To know one hour of tenderness,
One hour of lovers' night;
To hear your whisper's soft caress
One hour then come what might !
Dându-mi din ochiul tău senin
O rază dinadins,
În calea timpilor ce vin
O stea s-ar fi aprins;
Had you but granted me a glance
That was not filed with scorn,
Out of it's shining radiance
A new star had been born.
Ai fi trăit în veci de veci
Şi rânduri de vieţi,
Cu ale tale braţe reci
Înmărmureai măreţ,
You would have lived through lives untold
Beyond the ends of time;
O deity with arms so cold,
O marble form sublime !
Un chip de-a pururi adorat
Cum nu mai au perechi
Acele zâne ce străbat
Din timpurile vechi.
An idol of some pagan lore
As now no more is seen,
Come down to us from times of yore,
From times that long have been.
Căci te iubeam cu ochi păgâni
Şi plini de suferinţi,
Ce mi-i lăsară din bătrâni
Părinţii din părinţi.
My worship was of ages gone,
Sad eyes by faith beguiled,
Each generation handed on
From father unto child.
Azi nici măcar îmi pare rău
Că trec cu mult mai rar,
Că cu tristeţă capul tău
Se-ntoarce în zadar,
But now I very little care
To walk along that lane,
Nor heed the face I found so fair
Looks out for me in vain;
Căci azi le semeni tuturor
La umblet şi la port,
Şi te privesc nepăsător
C-un rece ochi de mort.
For you are like them all today
In bearing and in guise,
And I but look on your display
With cold and lifeless eyes.
Tu trebuia să te cuprinzi
De acel farmec sfânt,
Şi noaptea candela s-aprinzi
Iubirii pe pământ.
You should have known to value right
With wondering intent,
And lit your candela at night
To Love that God has sent.
Commentary
Dr. Ruxandra RouxHead of Literary Research & Development
Mihai Eminescu, 1883, one of the best-known love poems in Romanian. Readers like to pin it on a real woman. I would not.
The whole story is in the first stanza: he walked past the lonely poplars again and again, all the neighbours knew him, and she never noticed. He watched her lit window. A whole world understood. She did not. One hour as friends would have been enough, and then, he says, let him die. One glance from her, and a star would have lit up on the road of time. Then the temperature drops. Today she looks like everyone else, and he looks back with the cold eye of the dead. Her real fault is in the last stanza: she should have lit a candle for love on earth. A rejection can be answered. Being unseen leaves nothing to argue with.
Songs
The song made from Pe lângă plopii fără soț.
