I wonder how come there is a Joy…
JOY SUDDENLY APPEARED -
And mounted the Throne!
Settled down, and then – Joy cheered
Everyone with its performance shown:
Joy lightened thoughts with brilliant rays of hope
And changed gloomy moods to pleasant spirits -
All transformations happened just in minutes.
How come Joy acts on such a scope?
Joy had been called before, still – everything in vain:
Wide opened windows and doors, and crying might and main;
They urged Joy, well, they beseeched, with bells rung an old rhyme,
Sent heralds, bowed from the waist, and said to Joy: “IT’S TIME,
Await you, dear, - soft carpets laid, a golden table-cloth spread,
We badly need you, treasured one! Can no longer wait!
We cannot live without you, - you will be in the right:
The Home is not a home and the Bride is not a bride!”
Had smiled Joy and - stolen away,
Might be no reason had to stay,
Or someone put on it the arm -
At any rate Joy had not come.
…ALL OF A SUDDEN,
As the brilliant Sun on the Heavens JOY ROSE!
Started rolling around the earth as a rainbow wheel,
By the hills and the meadows went cheering up everybody
With sparkles of the Holy Enchantment – WAS COMING!
And opened wide all shutters and windows and
Bestowed catkins to poplars, and was
Exploded with riot of colors - up to the Heaven, -
At once there flowed such a lot of the Light and the Kindliness
That the Soul became breathless with happiness.
O, JOY! HOW IT IS AWFULLY NICE YOU HAVE ARRIVED!
(Переводчик В.В. Чистяков)