Rondeau

Design of stars so fair and fine
In the dark firmament is blazing;
Waters of pools and marshes shine
mirroring in their depths this blazon.
A mist into far space doth twine,
A choir of frogs chants hymns of praising
They beauty in the puddles shrined.
And in them burns a fair, amazing
Design.

Frogs curse the sun that hides from gazing
The puddles' stars by day. the pine
Woods hear, the field hears the croaked phrasing;
But frog-songs o'er the mountain spine
Rise not, where once some hand was tracing
Design.

Maxim Bahdanovich 1915