From Among Hundreds of Masts

From among hundreds of masts
Leaving shores and banks and bays,
Are there many to be lost
Broken by the winds and waves?

From among birds of passage,
Flying over lands and seas,
Are there many to be drowned
By the waves and by the sea?

If you chase away your luck
Or ideals, all you have,
You are followed everywhere
By the winds and by the waves.

Undeciphered is the thought
That keeps passing through your chants
As they fly, they murmur it
All these winds and all these waves.

-- Mihail Eminescu

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