Night
Boris Pasternak 1890 (Moscow) – 1960 (Peredelkino)
The night proceeds and dwindling
Prepares the day's rebirth.
An airman is ascending
Above the sleeping earth.
And almost disappearing
In cloud, a tiny spark,
He now is like a cross-stitch,
A midget laundry-mark.
Beneath him are strange cities,
And heavy traffic-lanes,
And night-clubs, barracks, stokers,
And railways, stations, trains.
The shadow of his wing-span
Falls heavy on the cloud.
Celestial bodies wander
Around him in a crowd.
And there, with frightful listing
Through emptiness, away
Through unknown solar systems
Revolves the Milky Way.
In limitless expanses
Are headlands burning bright.
In basements and in cellars
The stokers work all night.
And underneath a rooftop
In Paris, maybe Mars
Or Venus sees a notice
About a recent farce.
And maybe in an attic
And under ancient slates
A man sits wakeful, working,
He thinks and broods and waits;
He looks upon the planet,
As if the heavenly spheres
Were part of his entrusted
Nocturnal private cares.
Fight off your sleep: be wakeful,
Work on, keep up your pace,
Keep vigil like the pilot,
Like all the stars in space.
Work on, work on, creator-
To sleep would be a crime-
Eternity's own hostage,
And prisoner of Time.
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 206 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABAB ACXC DEDE XFGF AHXH XIXI XXXX XJAJ KXXX XLKL GMXM |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,144 |
Words | 199 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Translation
Find a translation for this poem in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Night" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/4519/night>.
Discuss the poem Night with the community...
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In