Konstantin Balmont
The Reeds

When midnight has come on the desolate slough,
Scarce heard are the reeds, so softly they sough.

Of what do they whisper and talk to and fro?
For what are the flamelets amongst them aglow?

They shimmer, they glimmer, and once more they wane,
Then the wandering light is enkindled again.

When midnight has come, then the reeds are aquake;
They harbour the toad and the hiss of the snake.

In the slough is aquiver a perishing gaze:
'Tis the purple-hued moon that forlornly decays.

There is odour of slime. And the soddenness crawls.
The marsh will allure and engulf as it mauls.

"But whom ? And for what — "say the reeds to and fro, —
"For what are the flamelets amongst us aglow?"

But the moon that forlornly and mutely decays
Cannot tell. But yet lower she settles her gaze

'Tis the sigh of a perishing spirit that now
The reeds softly raise as they mournfully sough.

Translated by Paul Selver