FROM MAIKOF.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.
For a long time last night I for sleep vainly yearned.
I arose, my room window wide throwing;
The night with its silence oppressed me, and burned,
O’er me odours intoxicant blowing.
Of a sudden the hedge ’neath my window-sill shook;
My curtain blew back with a shimmer;
And in floated a youth with a beaming look,
Just as if from the moonlight a glimmer.
Gliding up to my couch, came my wonderful guest,
Whispered he, as a smile his lips parted,
“Why from me, with your cheek ’neath the pillow prest,
Like a startled wee fish, have you darted?
“Look up! I’m a god—god of visions and dreams,
Secret friend of the innocent maiden;
And for thee, my own queen, for the first time, I ween,
With a bliss from on high come I laden!”
He spoke—and his hands my face lovingly seek;
From its nook he it tenderly presses;
Then a burning kiss fell on the curve of my cheek,
And his lips sought my lips in caresses.
Neath the breath of his mouth my strength seemed to have flown,
From my breast unclaspt arms I extended,
And there breathed in my ears, “You’re my own! you’re my own!”
Distant notes, with harp’s melody blended!
Swiftly glided the hours; when I opened my eyes,
Rosy dawn through my chamber was streaming;
Alone, locks dishevelled, I trembling arise,
And I know not the drift of my dreaming.
WHO WAS HE?
A STORY OF PETER THE GREAT.
Upon the mighty Neva’s bank,
Along the winding woodland way,
A Horseman rode, in forest wilds
Of elm, of pine, of mosses grey.
Before him rose a Fisher’s hut;
Beneath a pine, by the blue stream,
An aged, bearded Fisherman
Was mending his boat’s broken beam.
The Horseman said, “Grandsire! Good-day!
God help thee, friend! how liveth thou?
Doth thou catch much? and tell me, pray,
Where doth thou sell thy takings now?”
The old man answered sullenly,
“Are fishes in the river few?
And other market have I none,
Except the town, there, close to you.
“And how am I to fish to-day?
What kind of turmoil’s here, you see!
You fight; and, in the fight, a shell
Has smashed my fishing-boat for me!”
The Horseman bounded from his horse,
Without a word the tools he grasped;
And in a twinkling planked the boat,
The rudder in the stern set fast.
“See, now, old friend, thy boat’s all right!
Out on the water boldly set;
And, in the name of Peter’s luck,
Cast forth into the deep thy net.”
He vanished. Mused the stern old man:
“I wonder who the de’il was he!
In every inch he looked a king,
But plied the hatchet splendidly.”
THE EASTER KISS.[8]
Soon “the Sun-bright Feast-day” cometh,
I will claim my Easter kiss.
Others, then, will stand around us;
Pray, my Dora, mark you this!
Just as if I never kissed you,
Blushing red before the rest,
You must kiss, with downcast eyelids;
I will kiss, with smile represt.