Snowman Poem by Abraham Sutzkever

I

Snowman, monument to childhood, guard
Of a frozen treasure! Not in vain
Do I still believe you are my lord.
Hail to you, my snowman, hail again!
You're the god of children and of wind,
At your feet, my rainbow dream arrives.
Wolves come up in packs to you to spin
Prayers: Snowman, watch over our lives!
Snowman, you're eternal, never melts
Your white, sparkling crystal coat of mail.
Beautiful your dancing on your stilts
For the human stars down in the vale!

II

Snowman, clumsy, with a pot so triste —
On your head a crown! Come and surprise:
One more time your smile out of the mist.
All my loneliness warm with your ice.
If my longing reached you left behind —
In the traces of my footsteps go:
In a hut of sounds, there you will find
Me in holy prayer to the snow.
If you don't find — you alone will last,
We have missed each other like a rhyme.
You inherit then my small-hut past
And you finish breathing out my time.