Psalm

I ponder you in clamor and in silence
Tracking you through the course of time, like game,
To see: are you my much sought-after falcon?
Should I kill you? Or kneel down and pray.

For faith's sake or the sake of denial,
Stubborn I search for you, and uselessly.
Of all my dreams you are the loveliest
And I daren't shake the sky to let you fall.

As if reflected in the flow of water
Sometimes you seem to be and sometimes not;
I've glimpsed you in the stars, among the fish
Like the wild bull when he is taking water.

And now, us two alone, in your great story
I stay to match myself again with you,
Without my wanting to emerge the victor.
I want to touch you and to shout: "He is!"

Tudor Arghezi
tr. Andrei Bantas and Thomas Amherst Perry