Only snakes shed their skin,
So their souls can age and grow.
We, alas, do not resemble snakes,
We change souls, not bodies.
Memory, with the hand of a giantess
You lead life like a horse by the reins,
You will tell me about those who lived
In this body before it was mine.
The very first was plain and thin,
And loved only forests in twilight,
He was a fallen leaf, a magic child
Who stopped the rain with a word.
A tree and a red dog -
These he took as friends.
Memory, memory, you will not find proof,
You will not convince the world he was me.
And the second...He loved a wind from the south,
Heard the ring of the lyre in every noise,
Said that life was a friend to him,
And the world a carpet beneath his feet.
I don't like him at all, it was he
Who wanted to be God and king,
He hung the sign of a poet
Over the doors of my silent house.
I like freedom's chosen one,
The seafarer and rifleman.
Ah, the waters clearly sang to him
And the clouds were full of envy.
His tent was on high ground,
The mules were strong and frisky
He drank in like wine the sweet air
Of a country unknown to the white man.
Memory, you weaken year to year,
Was it that one or another one
Who traded happy freedom
For a sacred, long-awaited battle.
He knew the pains of hunger and thirst,
Sleep disturbed, the endless road,
But St. George twice touched
His breast untouched by a bullet.
I am the somber and stubborn builder
Of a temple rising up in the gloom.
I covet the glory of Savaoth,
Both in heaven and on earth.
My heart will be scorched to the depths by flame
Until the day when the walls of the New Jerusalem
Will rise up clean
From the fields of my native land.
And then a peculiar wind will blow
And a terrible light will pour from the sky -
The Milky Way will unexpectedly bloom
Like a garden of blinding planets.
An unknown traveler will appear before me,
Hiding his face; but I'll understand all
When I see the lion following his tracks,
And the eagle flying toward him.
I will cry out...but who can prevent
My soul from dying?
Only snakes shed their skin
We change souls, not bodies.
