Venus
Venus (The Evening Star)
Author: Mihai Eminescu
Once upon a time, as in legends told, Once upon a time, as if never before, A princess of noble birth, Beautiful beyond mortal measure.
She was her parents' only child, All charms gathered in her alone, Like a saint among saints, Like the moon among the stars.
From the shadow of grand arcades, She stepped forward, Coming to the window, at the wall's corner, Venus was waiting.
She gazed afar, over the sea, Where light rose and shone, Watching it on turbulent courses, Guiding dark ships.
Seen today, seen again tomorrow, Her wish had taken form: Venus had gazed for many days, And had fallen in love with her.
When she rested her chin on her hand, Dreams gently stroked her temples, Thoughts of him filled Her heart and soul.
Every night, how fiercely he Burned, When she was about to appear In the shadow of the dark castle.
Step by step, following her traces, Slipping into her chamber, With his cold flame, Weaving a web of fire.
When she lay straight on her bed, The young girl about to sleep, He gently touched her hands upon her chest, Closing her sweet eyelids;
From the mirror, light poured forth, Flowing over her, Falling on her large, closed eyes, Falling on her turned face.
Like a bride on her wedding day, She was sweet and holy, From head to foot, Perfect as sculpture.
She looked at him with a smile, He trembled in the mirror— For in deep dreams he pursued her, Longing to be with her soul. She spoke with him in dreams, Sighing heavily, whispering: "O, my sweet lord of night, Why do you not come? Come! Descend, gentle Venus, Slide down along the light, Enter this room, enter this thought, Illuminate my life!"
He listened, trembling, Burning ever more fiercely, Like lightning he plunged down, Sinking into the sea; Where he fell, the water Rippled in spreading rings, From unknowable depths, A handsome youth arose.
He stepped as lightly as crossing a threshold, Over the window ledge, Holding a staff, Its tip crowned with reeds. He seemed a young duke, With soft golden hair, On his bare shoulders, A deep blue mantle fastened.
The shadow of his translucent face, White as wax— A beautiful dead one, yet with living eyes, Shining outward with light.
"I have descended with difficulty from my celestial domain, Only to answer your call, The sky is my father, And the sea is my mother. To enter your chamber, To gaze upon you close at hand, I descended bearing my clear radiance, Born from the waters. Come! My ineffable treasure, Leave your mortal world; I am the heavenly Venus, And you, be my bride. There, in palaces of coral, I will take you for millions of years, The entire oceanic world, Will be at your command."
"O, you are so beautiful, as if only in dreams, Angels might appear, But the path you have opened, I will never walk; Stay in the heavens, do not pity Love I do not deserve, For I am not of your kind, Your visage transcends the earthly. Your speech is strange, your garb alien, You shine yet have no life, For I live, and you are dead, Your gaze makes me cold."
Then his face trembled, From a strange pain, As if a branch fell, In a fading forest clearing.
A day passed, three days passed, Night came again, Venus above her, With its clear radiance.
In her dream, she could not help Remembering him, Longing for the lord of the waves, Seized her heart:
"Descend, gentle Venus, Slide down along the light, Enter this room, enter this thought, Illuminate my life!"
He listened, flickering, Trembling ever more violently, Instantly, clouds burned, Sky and sea both aflame.
He heard her from the heavens, Extinguishing in pain, The sky began to rotate, Where he disappeared; Where he vanished, Spinning in spherical rings, Fragments of the sun, as if boiling, In black darkness.
Red flames in the air, Spread across the entire world, From the valley of chaos, A handsome figure coalesced into form.
On his black curls, As if a crown burned, He floated toward her, truly, Bathed in the flames of sunlight. From beneath a black shroud, Stretching marble-like arms, He came, sorrowful and contemplative, Pale-faced; Only those enormous strange eyes, Flashing deeply with dreamlike light, Like two endless passions, Filling the darkness.
"I have descended with difficulty from my celestial domain, Only to hear you once more, The sun is my father, And night is my mother; Come, to the heavens, let me take you, My beloved, From the path of time, pluck The crown of light. Come, go with me, my love, Let me show you what eternity is, For my mother is wisdom, Night, the mother of all things. Come, my ineffable treasure, Leave your mortal world; I am the heavenly Venus, And you, be my bride. Come, in your pale golden hair, I will fasten a wreath of stars, Let you rise in my sky, More brilliant than they."
"O, you are so beautiful, as if only in dreams, Devils might appear, But the path you have opened, I will never walk! For your cruel love, The heartstrings in my chest ache, Your enormous heavy eyes, Your gaze, burns me."
"But how do you want me to descend? Don't you understand, I am immortal, And you are mortal?"
"I seek no ornate words, Nor know how to begin— Though your words are easy to understand, I cannot comprehend you; But if you truly want me to believe, To let me love you, Then descend to the earth, Become like me, mortal."
"You ask me to trade immortality, For a single kiss, But you should also know, How much I love you; I will ascend to the heavens, Go to the Lord of all things, I will ask Him to grant me death, Only He can do so. Yes, I will be born from sin, Accepting another law: I am linked to eternity, Yet I will sever this link."
He spread his wings in the void, Wings beating, In an instant crossing the paths of millions of years, He traversed chaos.
He flew ceaselessly... flew for a long time. For a young girl's love, He departed his celestial abode, Passing through countless days and nights.
Now, Cătălin, That cunning page, At the banquet for guests, Filling wine cups with red wine, A servant boy, step by step holding The queen's long train, A wild child of humble birth, Yet with bold fearless eyes, Cheeks like two peonies, Red and burning—may he be punished— He secretly peeked, Watching Cătălina.
Ah, how beautiful she was, And how proud—may fire burn her! Hey, Cătălin, now is precisely the moment, Come try your luck.
He gently took her waist, In the corner of the room.
"What are you doing, Lord Cătălin? Go away, don't touch me." "What do I want? I want you to no longer Forever be lost in thought, Why not smile, give me A kiss, just one." "I don't even know what you want, Let me be quiet, go far away— O, the heavenly Venus, Let me yearn to death." "If you don't know, I'll tell you, Speaking of love bit by bit, Just don't be angry, Listen well to me. Just as a hunter spreads nets in the forest, To catch little birds, When I extend my left arm, You embrace me with both arms; Your motionless eyes, Remain beneath my gaze... If I lift you under your arms, You stand on tiptoe; When my face bends down, Your face tilts up, Let us endlessly and sweetly, Gaze at each other for a lifetime; And so that your love, May be fully known to you, When I bend to kiss you, You also kiss me. A kiss! You've already embraced me, In your sleeve, When your eyes close, They will relight."
She listened to this youth's words, Bewildered and distracted, Shy yet lovely, Half yielding, half resisting. He held her tightly in his arms, Caressing more gently: "May I never wake, From this deep happiness." She whispered to him: "I've known you since childhood, You're talkative and unserious, Yet you... suit me too..."
But a Venus star, from the silence Of oblivion arose, Drawing boundless skies For the loneliness of the sea; I mysteriously lowered my eyelashes, Filled with tears, As waves of water passed by, Traveling toward it; It shines with ineffable love, Wanting to disperse my sorrow, Yet rises ever higher, Beyond my reach. It mournfully pierces with cold radiance, From the world that separates us... I will love it forever, and it, Will forever be beyond reach... Thus my days, Desolate as plains, And nights, with sacred allure, I can no longer comprehend."
"You're still a child, just so... Come, let us flee to the human world, Let our traces vanish, No one knowing our names, For we will both become clever, Happy and healthy, You will forget longing for your parents, And forget dreams of Venus."
Venus set forth. His wings, Growing in the sky, The paths of millions of years, Flown across in as many moments.
Below was a sky of stars, Above too was a sky of stars— He seemed an unbroken flash of lightning, Passing among the stars. Here, a moon ignited on the path, There, a sun extinguished, Yet nothing could halt His racing thought. From the valley of chaos, White stars swarmed forth, Spinning on magnificent orbits, Like strings of necklaces. From the valley of chaos, In all directions around him, He saw, as on the first day of creation, How light surged forth; Light surged, surrounding him, Like a vast ocean, for him to swim across... He flew borne by longing, Until everything, everything vanished.
Here, eternity had grown weary of Spinning into spheres, Without light, without sin, Darkness spreading. Here was the dwelling of extinction, The purest night, Where nothing had ever existed, And nothing ever would again. So deep, so sorrowful, Untouched by a single spark, Venus dimmed, Forced to halt.
For where he arrived there were no boundaries, Nor eyes that could recognize, Time vainly attempted, To be born from the void. Thousands and millions of years could not comprehend, Seized by blind oblivion, The entire universe was but nothingness, Swallowed by this abyss. Nothing at all, yet something, A longing consumed it, It was an abyss, like Blind oblivion. Tremor passed through him, he felt cold, He folded his wings, For the first time since existence, He began to weep.
"O, You, whose holy name, No language can call, I beseech You, change My earthly existence. Release me from heavy eternity, Father, May You be forever praised, Across the entire ladder of this world; O, demand any price from me, Lord, But give me another fate, For You are the source of life, And the giver of death; Take back my immortal halo, Take back the fire in my eyes, In exchange for all this, give me, One hour of love... After that, I may depart, Like a falling leaf, Sinking into darkness, Sinking into cold oblivion. Lord, I emerged from chaos, I will return to chaos... I was born from rest, I long for rest."
Such cruel trembling, Passed through him, night grew violent, A deep voice sounded, Resounding in his ears.
"Hyperion, source of time, Completer of space, You call from the virgin night, Insatiable will. Hyperion, you rebelliously, Rose with the sun from light, Whoever has no death in their heart, Will never die. Hyperion, you from the abyss, Carried an entire world upward, Do not pray for miracles, They have no form or name. Even if you demand the entire universe, I would give it as you wish, But you are my strength, I cannot, Refuse that strength itself. How could you be formed— From tears and sin— You have risen since eternity, Light of light. You would want to become mortal, Like them? Let all perish, They will be born again. They only persist in the wind, Empty ideals— When waves find their grave, New waves rise after them; They have only stars of fate, And the pursuit of fate, We have no time, nor space, We know not what death is. They bind their petty selves, To the pain of life, With a thousand regrets, Clutching the vanishing dream. We have neither loss nor gain, Knowing not what emptiness is, For the birds that fly down, Will fly back next year. In vain you wish to flee, Your pitiful world, When eyelids begin to tear, Eyelids will clear again. No matter how withered, Trees will bloom next year, When humans begin to age, Humans will regain youth. For they are transient, All things are transient— Is not everything, The garment of immortal existence? For He disperses them and gathers them, He measures their lives by the moon, They live and die, in the sacred One, All things return to the One. All that ever was, all that ever will be, Is forever present, And the sorrowful story of perishing, Is but appearance and legend. From the bosom of eternal yesterday, Today's dying things live, If one sun extinguishes in the heavens, Another sun will ignite. As if forever rising, Yet death pursues from behind, For all that lives is destined to die, All that dies is destined for new birth. Even if time and space vanish, In the dark valleys, They will rise again, Spinning like spheres. If the sky is dyed black By rebellious storms, If stars all perish, Stars will be born again. Let the world plunge into the abyss, Like cold leaves drifting in the wind, Let the earth perish in destruction, A new earth will be born. The sun from the mountain forest, Sinks into foaming waves, Yet simultaneously on the other side of the world, Rises again. When you see the sun setting, Redly sinking into the water, On another land it has already risen, A new day is about to begin. At every moment, you ask, Where are the sun and moon, They are in every moment, each different, Yet unified in all things. You measure your world with cubits, You divide time with the moon— But if one exists in the whole, All things exist in the One. Waves of the sea, waves of the lake, Forests, nations, On any single leaf, You see a leafy tree. All effort returns to nothing, Nature has its own law, In every acorn, A whole forest is hidden. You have only the pursuit of fortune, And the pursuit of fate, Nature has no time or space, Knows not what death is. It is forever present, Like the sin of Eve's mother, You can find it everywhere, In all real things. You believe in stars and fate, Like fairy tales of youth, When life conquers death, And death is the mother of life. You wish to use suffering, To persuade the Great One, the Highest One? How would the One in heaven care, Whether it is you or someone else crying? Neither death nor sin exists, As long as foam still shines, For Brahma has not reconciled with night, The mother of all things. Thousands and millions of years, songs sorrowful, Rising toward Him, All eyes will逐一 vanish, Only crying is eternal. You, from my eternal whole, Occupy only one-third, How can you ask me to negate my strength, How can I grant you death? And you, Hyperion, remain, Wherever you fall... Ask of me—my first word, Want me to grant you wisdom? If you wish to be a saint, To know what suffering and labor are, I give you a land, For you to be called Buddha. If you wish to call me by name, In this world I created, I give you a time, For you to be called Plato. Do you want that voice to open, So that after its song, Mountains and forests, Islands and seas, all move with it? Or perhaps you wish to demonstrate in reality, Justice and power? I will shatter the earth into fragments, For you to build kingdoms. I give you forests of sails, Give you armies of thousands, To cross land and sea, But death—cannot be given... And for whom do you wish to die? Go back, turn around, Toward that wandering land, See what awaits you."
Venus returned to His ordained place in the heavens, As yesterday, Pouring forth his light anew.
For dusk was falling, Night was about to begin; The moon quietly rose, Trembling in the water, With its shining radiance, Filling the forest paths. Under the long linden trees, Sat a pair of youths:
"Let me rest my head on your chest, Beloved, let it sleep, Under your clear gaze, That unspeakable sweetness; With the charm of your cold radiance, Piercing my thoughts, Pouring eternal tranquility, Over my passionate night. Stay beside me, Soothe my pain, For you are my first love, And my final dream."
Venus saw from above, The wonder on their faces— He had just placed his arm on her neck, And she embraced him tightly...
Silver flowers散发着 fragrance, Like sweet rain, Falling on the heads of two children, Their hair pale gold.
She, intoxicated with love, Lifted her eyes. She saw Venus. In the dimness, She entrusted her wish:
"Descend, gentle Venus, Slide down along the light, Enter this forest, enter this thought, Illuminate my happiness!"
He trembled as before, Over forests and hills, For wandering waves, Guiding the way in solitude;
Yet no longer as in the past, Plunging from the heights into the sea: —"You are a form shaped from clay, why care, Whether it is I or another? Live in your narrow circle, Fortune accompanies you, And I in my world, Feel myself immortal and cold."
Literary Commentary (approximately 300 words)
Venus (Luceafărul) uses cosmic mythology to elevate a human love tragedy: the princess's gaze awakens the star, and the star twice "descends" for love, yet always presents the distance of "incommensurable kinds" in different forms. The repeated invocation "slide down along the light" acts like a spell, propelling the narrative from sea to sky, from sky to abyss, completing an ascent from desire to metaphysics. Eminescu writes "eternity" as optical experience: cold radiance, webs of fire, spherical rings, burning clouds—these images are both magnificent and cruel, letting the reader see the loneliness of the immortal body and the limits of human love. At the ending, Venus still guides the courses, yet refuses to plunge into the sea again, declaring a mature tragic consciousness: love can illuminate, but cannot possess; longing can reach the boundary, yet cannot cross it. The power of this poem lies in pushing emotion to the cosmic scale, then contracting the cosmos back into the trembling of a single heart.
Copyright Notice: This is a preview translation — Chinese original is the authoritative version. Copyright belongs to Guangzhou Phaenarete AI Technology Co., Ltd. Unauthorized reproduction, citation, or distribution is prohibited.