Three beauties of the east
To tell about three beauties I shall try.
For you should know they grace the earth and sky.
This pen of mine, kept warm by earthly heat.
Will try to sketch these beauties you should meet.
The deathless days, the great events, those things
That have inspired and lent my spirit wings.
Three grand occasions of the East, and all
Have left a deep impression on my soul.
1
Although this tale is short, it is at least
As ancient as the yashmak of the East,
That horsehair veil, yashmak that left no room
For living youth, a winding-sheet, a tomb.
O mother, daughter, sister and the bride,
Why should a veil your gentle features hide?
How can one live and in the Spring not see
The bright renewal, burgeoning and free?
The veil, while glorifying ancient things.
Hid from the East the glory that is Spring's.
The veil, like some black threat'ning thundercloud
Would hide Spring's virgin face as in a shroud.
O Asiatic woman, you were born
As lovely as an early springtide dawn.
Captivity drove beauty from your face.
Your youthful body lost its strength and grace.
The world became as lifeless as a grave
Wherever you were bound and made a slave.
To your great beauty perfect verse was penned
And songs to you resounded without end.
With what could men your form and grace compare?
No slim and supple cypress was as fair.
Your lips were blood-red petals, warm their glow.
Your crescent brows outshone the new Moon's bow;
But you could never hear that fulsome praise,
For veils had kept you captive all your days.
To scholars of great learning you gave birth,
To warriors and men of Stirling worth,
But you, whom men had praised for ages past,
Alive into a ghastly grave were cast.
The East had still, to learn the words to bring
The gift of vital strength to bloom in spring
And only where Neva's banks surged with strife
Were found the words to bring you back to life.
October's flames were bright. Their force increased
And resurrected women of the East.
The East could see that she, the Spring, had torn
The veil, yashmak, and now arose reborn.
Where she was mistress life became more splendid.
All nature bloomed now thraldom's reign had ended
And so the East could see that you were wise,
That beauty wants no veil before her eyes.
The day the East discovered your sweet face
A great discovery had taken place.
For Man beheld the face of Spring and life,
His mother's face, the face of his own wife.
2
For centuries the East had been obscure
And men imagined light that would endure.
From ancient times, throughout long moonlit nights
They bowed down to the Moon, performing rites
For her who on the homeless shed her light
And cast a glow in hovels thro' the night.
When no Moon shone the East was gripped by fear.
Men prayed the radiant goddess might appear.
Without the Moon the darkness was so dense
It seemed the East must pay for some offense.
And men would sense how ghastly terror grips
The heart in moments of the Moon's eclipse.
They mounted roofs and railed against the skies.
They wept and filled the air with plaintive cries;
No man could tell what force could put things right
And so they kept their vigil thro' the night.
On pails and pots and pans that came to hand
They drummed in one great cacophonic band,
Demanding from the sky the Moon once more,
As if on darkling heavens making war.
The heavens' lamp would glow again and soon
Men's hopes revived. They blessed the radiant Moon.
They praised the heavens' lamp that shed no heat,
But grieved because her disk was not complete.
The Moon would force her way thro' banks of cloud.
Yet part of her was hid as in a shroud.
And people thought the luminary Moon
Would be enslaved until the crack of doom.
For tho' she shone, a part remained quite black
And that was hidden by a dark yashmak.
But none knew what it hid from mortal eyes,
Since none could read the riddles of the skies.
At last, to learn the secrets hid by night,
Men circled round the Moon, like moths in flight,
And, armed with knowledge, traced long arcs thro' skies
To bring the lunar disk before men's eyes.
No heavy veil can hide the Moon these days.
On every side her beauty she displays.
Now, thanks to Red October in its might,
Men see in full the lunar day and night.
So in the East a new light had its birth,
A second beauty had appeared on Earth.
3
And now the sky with Earth is deep in love,
Since mankind conquered cosmic space above.
How proud the sky to be a friend of Earth
Where labour is the gem of greatest worth!
The sky's in love with mankind newly freed
That from our Earth attained a cosmic speed.
To all the outer worlds we send great news,
To all the galaxies our planet views.
From this our land, where freedom's will is done,
And men of many nations stand as one,
The land that both the black and white men hold
To be the homeland of the free and bold.
The sky, whose love for Earth will stand time's test,
Told her that he would make but one request,
«So many lovely girls of yours I see,
I beg of you, send one of them to me.
I know the way is hard, but at its end
The daughter of the Earth shall find a friend.
She'll see our way of life and she may stay
At lovely places on the Milky Way.»
Hard work, unbending courage, honour, too,
Boarded Vostok-6 and off they flew
To soar thro' endless space that gleams on far.
Thus Valentina, too, became a star.
The constellations saw that star arise
And, at a loss, could not believe their eyes.
Her earthly loveliness outshone the sky,
Her Russian beauty, gleaming there on high.
The will of Red October soared up there
And with our Valentina made a pair.
The third and final beauty now you know,
The one whose deed made years and aeons glow.
The East observes that girl with sheer delight
And sees her pure, proud soul illume the night.
1965
