Lumehelbeke
tasa, tasa
liugleb aknale,
tasa… tasa …
Nagu viibiks ta
tasa, tasa,
mõtleks tulles ka:
tasa, tasa!
Miks nii tuksud, rind?
Tasa, tasa!
Rahu otsib sind –
tasa, tasa…
[1891]
A small flake of snow,
silence, silence,
drifts past the window,
silence… silence…
As if it were waiting,
silence, silence,
as if contemplating:
silence, silence!
My heart, why beat so?
Silence, silence!
Peace waits for you —
silence, silence…
Translated from the Estonian into English by Jüri Talvet and H. L. Hix
Reprinted with permission of the translators from:
Juhan Liiv, Snow Drifts, I Sing: Selected Poems. Ed. Jüri Talvet. Trans. Jüri Talvet and H. L. Hix. Guernica Editions, 2013.