VILLAGE LASSIE DAWN

    A new day is dawning;
The star of dawn burns bright in the morning.
Loud sings the cock – a new day is dawning!

    And the lark, and the lark,
In the blue heavens twittering,
Outspeeds the wind, its wings gaily fluttering.

    Rejoicing,
It sings, in the clear height flying;
Hens cackle, their voices also trying.

    An ox-calf,
Into the farmyard going,
Digs up the earth, lowing.

    The lambs and goat-kids
Gleefully dance;
Cutting droll capers, they hop and prance.

    What is that,
Over the forest, ruddy?
Whose bright light is the whole world flooding?

    'Tis sunrise –
The sun, the sun is rising,
Scattering gold flowers, on the horizon.

    Twittering, flitting,
Birds from their nests are appearing;
Roses bloom on a forest clearing.

    Shining dewdrops,
Pearl-like, set on the meadow,
Bright-green, with flower-scents heady.

    The cuckoo
Out in the woods stark coo-cooing;
Softly, softly, the dove is cooing.

    A rabbit
Over the glade goes running,
Waving its ears, so cunning.

    Bad weather!
At last you are going!
Glad are all creatures living and growing.

1814

Translated by Dorian Rottenberg

Born in a peasant family in the village of Astravas, Antanas Strazdas studied at Jesuit colleges in Kražiai, Ilukstė and Polonka. In 1789 he graduated from the Varniai seminary. He was a priest in various Catholic parishes in Eastern Lithuania. In 1815 he began to till the land himself. He had children and on the orders of his bishop was confined to a monastery for "penitence." In 1814 Strazdas published a book of verse, Secular and Religious Songs, addressed to Lithuanian peasants. Many of his unpublished poems became folk songs.