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Nikolajs Kurzens: Autumn Elegy (From Esperanto)

Autumn Elegy
Nikolajs Kurzens
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Click to hear me recite the original Esperanto

It rained all yesterday, today it's raining
So too tomorrow drops will slip and strew
Wearily as the weary minutes do
Of this my life � aimless and dull and draining.

Yes each day robs and washes me of something!
Yes each night carries something else from me!
No, of the past I've but a memory!
No, for the future I am left with nothing!

No more is the sky sliced by lightning blades
No more the heavens shuddering with thunder.
A phthisic wind is weeping in the corners,
And rain and rain and rain � day after day. 

And each day robs and washes me of something
And each night carries something else from me
And of the past I have but memory,
And for the future I am left with nothing.

The Original:

Autuna Elegio

Hierau pluvis, kaj hodiau pluvas
kaj morgau same, lace glitos gutoj;
kaj same, lace iros la minutoj
de mia viv', sencela kaj enua.

Ja ciu tag' forlavas rabe ion!
ja ciu nokto portas ion for!
ja de l' pasinto restas nur memor'!
ja por l' estonto havas mi nenion!

Ne fendas plu cielon fulma glavo,
ne tremas tondre plu la firmamento.
Ce la anguloj ploras ftiza vento,
kaj pluvas, pluvas, pluvas � tag' post tago.

Kaj ciu tag' forlavas rabe ion,
kaj ciu nokto portas ion for;
kaj de l' pasinto restas nur memor'
kaj por l'estonto � havas mi nenion...

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