The Stony Beauty of Ladoga / Каменная красота Ладоги

Ladoga Lake — Stone Gates / Врата Ладоги

The mighty rocks of Ladoga Lake tower like massive stone gates to her world of austere Northern beauty.
Могучие скалы Ладоги воздвиглись словно гигантские врата в ее мир строгой северной красоты.

TO LADOGA

O vast of Ladoga,
The breadth with no end or limit
Where the songful choir of waves
Sounds ceaselessly,

Where the rocks of the islands
Gaze in the eternal muse
On the dance of the clouds
In the infinite azure—

O wideness of the blue waters,
Free and limitless
Like a look without a backward glance
Into the secrets of the fathomless heavens,

You water and wing one
With the vast liberty
And nourish our soul
With the holy purity.

The Magi of your shores,
The solemn forests,
Are your royal cover
Of the emerald attires:

Their oracular voice sings
To the ear of the living heart
Of the flight of the green dreams
And chants the living songs of the Spirit;

The magic flowers
Of the in-shore meadows and glades
Like eyes of beauty
Of the charming unearthly nymphs;

And the strophes of the reeds
Amid the silent backwaters
By the quiet shores
Where the waves whisper fairytales—

O beauty of Ladoga,
The vast with no end or limit,
Where marvels are everywhere
As in sweet pastures of Paradise,

Your living riches
Words cannot express—
Even a poem is helpless—
Let you see them yourselves!

Ritam

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