The Arrow and the Song

Today I remembered my favorite poem “The Arrow and the Song” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I want to share it with you. I learnt it by heart when I was 12 (and I still remember it well):

I shot an arrow into the air,

It fell to earth, I knew not where;

For, so swiftly it flew, the sight

Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,

It fell to earth, I knew not where;

For who has sight so keen and strong,

That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak

I found the arrow, still unbroke;

And the song, from beginning to end,

I found again in the heart of my friend.

And here it is the perfect translation of this poem by D.Mikhalovski:

Стрелу из лука я пустил

Не знал я, где она упала;

Напрасно взор за ней следил,

Она мелькнула и пропала.

На ветер песню бросил я:

Звук замер где-то в отдаленьи...

Куда упала песнь моя

Не мог сказать я в то мгновенье.

Немного лет спустя, потом

Стрела нашлась, в сосне у луга,

Свою же песню целиком

Нашел я в теплом сердце друга.