Page:Modern Russian Poetry.djvu/173

Rh

First to sharpen the ax-flint they bent, On the green they had gathered, unpent, They had gathered beneath the green tent. There where whitens a pale tree-trunk, naked, There where whitens a pale linden trunk. By the linden tree, by the young linden, By the linden tree, by the young linden, The linden trunk White and naked.

At the fore, shaggy, lean, hoar of head, Moves the wizard, as old as his runes; He has lived over two thousand moons. And the ax he inhumed. From the far lakes he loomed Long ago. It is his: at the trunk The first blow.

And two priestesses in their tenth Spring To the old one they bring. In their eyes Terror lies. Like the trunk their young bodies are bright, Their wan white Hath she only, the tender young linden.