saturated baroque syntax
O no, do not dim – do not fade in the carved, bone-white portals of the night,
for here is childhood, still light-footed, running through gold-winged meadows,
and clapping its hands, stirring time like a spring
that murmurs against the abyss.
Old age – a gray beggar in amber rags –
crawls along the wayside, counting shadows,
and calls with a glass-like breath to bow down, to soften, to drift off.
But I shall not surrender to her, I shall not submit in this resounding hour –
neither I, nor the heart that still beats like a thunder-bringer.
I will stir the dawn, I will raise winds on the horizon,
I will shake the black-throated bells of oblivion
and command them to clamor – against the silent pits,
against the creeping ash along the edges of my name.
For I remember how once – in the first days,
when the world was crystal-generous,
and the trees sang to me with clarinet-sap –
I ascended the hills and summoned the sun to speak.
Then nothing seemed finite,
and time, like a bold hound, chased after me,
and I laughed – untamed, unyielding.
And now I stand – the last orator against the predatory silence,
and I see how the darkness, like hot wax,
trickles from the heavens, weary of my stubbornness.
But let it! I will forge my voice into a sword,
I, a word-thrower, a spirit-burner, into the eyes
of the fiery raven I gaze without trembling.
For death is but a veiling wind
that wishes to extinguish my candle;
and I – a smoldering storm,
that lights itself again and again
against her eyeless lips.
So let my childhood stand nearby –
that young reflection that still remembers
all the paths upward, all the ways to sing,
when the lungs are overflowing with light.
And let old age, already bowed behind my back,
hear how I, bracing myself against the earth,
call the storm to battle.
I do not go gently into the phantom gate –
I break free, I thunder, I resurrect myself with breath.
O no, I – I am not ready.
Once more, for the last time,
with a cry I shall rend the darkness
and force the night to ignite with my name.