Your art shall inner living be

I mentioned several months ago that I'd been lucky enough to locate a copy of the edited letters of Hugh MacDiarmid (1984, Alan Bold) - as pictured ...

... have recently been reading through more of the near 1,000-page volume, and was reminded of the influence that Fyodor Tyutchev had on Macdiarmid's work.

So; here is one of my favourite translations (I know there are many!) of Tyutchev's famous Silentium --- a wonderful invocation to 'Silence and Darkness', the positive qualities of which, seem to have escaped much of the modern world:


Silentium

Be silent, hidden, and conceal
Whate'er you dream, whate'er you feel.
Oh, let your visions rise and die
Within your heart's unfathomed sky,
Like stars that take night's darkened route.
Admire and scan them and be mute.

The heart was born dumb; who can sense
Its tremors, recondite and tense?
And who can hear its silent cry?
A thought when spoken is a lie.
Uncovered springs men will pollute,
Drink hidden waters, and be mute.

Your art shall inner living be.
The world within your fantasy
A kingdom is that waits its Saul.
The outer din shall still its call,
Day's glare its secret suns confute.
Oh, quaff its singing, and be mute.

---

Fyodor Tyutchev (1803 - 1873)

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