Poems Without Frontiers

Poems in Translation

David William Paley






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New Born Day
David William Paley

The sun peers over mountain heights
To turn the burning candle pale;
And dancing stars now cease to play
Whilst moth and owl leave all travail
As moon sinks down away from day.

The frozen hand of lazing dark
Is warmed to life by glint of fire
To tear a streak in blackest shame
And lift the veil from glowing pyre
As brave new youth springs into flame.

A golden blush of kindled dawn
Soon bursts upon the waking scene
With gleeful cries of unleashed rays
That charm the eye with view serene
Confirming faith in breaking days.

Let darkness flee from early hours
As petals smile from open flowers;
Though stars were bright and moon delight
They were too far to wrest from night,
Too hard to grasp and thus to keep
When morning light begins to creep.

But dew lies pearled upon the leaf
In mirrored drops of bold display
As daisies sway amid the gleam
With nodding heads in winds of May
That sigh across the crystal stream.

How silent is the early mist
That shrinks away like maidens kissed!
How calm the clouds that soar so high
That sail across the lightened sky!
How wild the geese in vaulted dome,
That fly aloft in search of home!

We hear the song of lark on wing,
The merest spot amid the blue,
Reach down to our enraptured ear
As upturned faces search the view
To seek the source amid the clear.

All doubts we had are overthrown
As chanting trees in choirs intone,
Persuaded by these signs of might,
That voices joined to praise the sight
Proclaim the joys of all we own
Surpassing thrush that sings alone.

© David William Paley