Drowsy The Waves

Translated by Percy Paul Selver

Drowsy the waves and dim the sky,
Across the shore and far away,
Like drunken things the rushes sway
Without a want. O God on high,
Is it decreed that longer yet
Within the lockless prison set,
Beside this sea that profits naught,
I am to languish? Answering not,
Like to a living thing, the grain
Sways mute and yellowing on the plain;
No tidings will it let me hear,
And none besides to give me ear.

                      1848, Kos-Aral