LITUANUS LITHUANIAN QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES   Volume 48, No.3 - Fall 2002 Editors of this issue: Violeta Kelertas ISSN 0024-5089 Copyright © 2002 LITUANUS Foundation, Inc.

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MAIRONIS (JONAS MAČIULIS)
1862-1932

MAIRONIS

MY BIRTHPLACE*
MANO GIMTINE

There, where the Nemunas flows softly 
Through the hills and dales, 
My poor brothers are lamenting 
Many ages past.

There my mother rocked my cradle 
Singing songs of woe, 
With her breast so full of sorrow 
Secretly it flows.

Here forests sighed and remembered 
Times so long ago, 
When our people were astounded 
To awake enslaved.

There old castles lie in ruins 
High upon the hills, 
Heroes' bones are slowly crumbling 
Grieving in their graves.

Here I grew up and felt deeply
All my sorrows,
There came to love them and to cherish
The sorrows of the oppressed.

O, those painful thoughts 
Do press me, 
Just like rusty iron 
With unhealing wounds.

PROTECT, O MOST HIGH**
APSAUGOK, AUKŠČIAUSIAS

Protect, O Most High, our beloved land,
Where lie our homesteads, our fathers' graves!
Your fatherly hand is mighty and strong!
We are your weary children forever.
Do not abandon, O Almighty, our dear homeland
Merciful and mighty throughout the ages.

SUMMER NIGHTS*** 
VASAROS NAKTYS

Quiet, balmy nights of summer; 
Every leaf still, quietly sleeping. 
All is calm now, all is quiet, 
Only the stars are twinkling, burning.

All lie sleeping, all are quiet, 
Earth is enfolded in dreams of love: 
They carry my soul, carry and cradle it 
So full of longing and inspiration.

Summer nights, quiet and balmy, 
Luring the heart to take its rest! 
Countless the sorrows our earth is full of, 
Only you are calm and unchanging.

Calm and unchanging! With magic power 
Lulling the earth with dreams of sweetness! 
Why can't you still all of my longing? 
Why am I sad then, why am I yearning?

O, to embrace the whole of creation, 
Longing to love God in His heaven, 
O to possess this beauty eternal!.. 
Why am I sad then, why am I yearning?

Translated by Ona Mikaila

* First published in 1895; set to music and sung as a folk song. Sixteen variants have been discovered.
** Ending of a longer poem, first published in 1902. Set to music by Lithuanian composer A. Kačanauskas and sung as a hymn, it became especially popular among the Lithuanian diaspora.
*** First published in 1920—written in the form of a rondo with repetitions. Set to music, it became a favorite Lithuanian song.