Barcarolle

Barcarolle
Music by A. Khomenko
Lyrics by V. Osadchenko

For voice and piano

Slantwise across the slowly moving stream,
in which the slow sky melts and slips away,
an empty little boat, soundless, makes its way
toward the Christmas star’s flickering gleam.

The water’s dark, made thick by winter’s chill,
and the light wake cannot hold on the glass,
as if in a black draft notebook words pass
into the page’s depths and vanish still.

Above December the water closes tight,
and a star falls into the shivering void.
Through the cold darkness, here, arrives its light
unbearably late, yet all the same
it’s faster than never.

V. Osadchenko. English translation by Claude.