When You Look In The Sea-Mirror Poem by Peter Mamara

by M. Eminescu (1850-1889)

When you look in the mirror of the sea
You see green shores in it, and evening sky
— And clouds and stars.
The wave moans when they break
And the wind sounds
In the reeds,
Which rustle a song of gondoliers. .

If you stray for a minute
Beneath the green and salty
Sheer size of the sea,
Into its wet wilderness,
There, you would feel
Like buried alive in a coffin.

You see a smile on my dried lips,
You see a sweet dream on my calm head
And the warm summer wind of the meadow
It sounds distressingly in my sad lyre.

If you could enter with a gaze into my chest
And look at its sea of anger and spite,
Then you could know my life well.
Look! It's I who has plain smiles and a quiet character.

(1869)
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