Konstantin Balmont
Snowflake

How fluffy and how light
        The snowflake in the cold!
And how pure and white!
        How delicate and bold!

Along the stormy road
        It rushes lightly by.
It wants and seeks the earth
        And not the azure sky.

It left that wondrous blue
        Behind it and has thrown
Itself through winter skies
        Into a land unknown.

Into the shining rays
        The Knowing One now glides,
And midst the melting flakes
        The White One safely rides.

Borne by a blowing wind
        Caressing it, it sings.
Trembling, it rises up,
        And brilliantly it swings...

And in the swinging sweep
        Seems happy and consoled.
And in the blizzard’s blast
        It circles uncontrolled.

But now the long road ends...
        From heights that saw its birth
The star of crystal falls
        Until it touches Earth.

There lies the fluffy one,
        The snowflake bold and light.
How delicate and pure!
        How brilliant and how white!

Translated by Vladimir Markov and Merrill Sparks