You’re beautiful, oh forest mine
Lyuben Karavelov
You’re beautiful, oh forest mine,
So youthful is your scent
But why the hearts for you that pine
You fill with such lament?
And all who cast their eyes on you
They will forever cry
That in your shade and in your dew
They can not sweetly die.
And all who don’t have time to spend,
Who have to go away
Will not forget you to the end,
Will always want to stay.
A wall of green your secret screens
Your oaks and your beech trees
And all your flowers, all your streams,
The fattened lambs, the bees,
The luscious grass, the peony smart,
Your deep and shady cool –
They like a bullet pierce my heart
And by some crystal pool
My heart that is forever keen
To shed some joyful tears
Beholding leaves of baby green
And how all nature cheers
Is crying when the gleeful spring
Sad old age sends away,
Is crying when the new life springs
And over us holds sway.
Translation from Bulgarian to English:
Sergey Boyadjiev
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Editor’s note:
Lyuben Karavelov (1834-1879) is a Bulgarian poet, writer, encyclopedist, journalist, ethnographer; national hero, fighter for the liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule.
Sergey Boyadzhiev is a Bulgarian doctor, poet, writer and translator, our contemporary. He lives in Great Britain. His poems in Bulgarian can be seen here.
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