I'LL VANISH LIKE SMOKE

I'll vanish like smoke drifting up in the air,

And no one will miss me at all!

Like thousands who lived once and sank in despair,

Whose names now can no one recall!

Like waves of the seas or a man's restless thought

This world's deeds are changing with time!

Where's Sardis? Or Athens? The Romans who sought

To reach in their works the sublime?

Then what is my misery or inspiration?

Those flashes revealing my soul?

A stir of my blood or my heart's trepidation –

The grave soon will swallow it all!

My songs soon will die! Yet a fond aspiration

Will make other poets fly high!

The same distant star will arouse admiration,

They'll suffer bedazzled like I!

And what is the glory in song so exalted?

A shadow that's tuning along!

When man is no more, all the dreams he has haunted

Will fade soon like thick crimson dawn!

Translated by Lionginas Pažūsis