Our shadows are long
when we return in the evening
in the evening of our lives
from meeting those between us
but we ourselves are small
The crocus
clasps its hands together
deer move up the hollow
as they did a thousand years ago
Beyond the woods
the field
the sparrow-colored field
sparrows sparrow-colored
Where do you fly little birds
that heaven vast and squandered
having found each other
having found each other's dream
or not at all?
—patterned after Jaan Kaplinksi's "Our Shadows,"
as translated from the Estonian by Sam Hamill.
