Personal Prayer

by Eremites Plato

O spirits of forests,
Dear fellows of my childhood,
You brought me up,
We played together,
Smiling in the shadow of trees.

You taught me to understand
Incomprehensible and barely audible
Whisper of leaves that shivered,
Embraced with morning mists
And kissed by chilly breeze.

We hid ourselves by night
In the darkness of woods
Whence at distant lights of cities
We looked with awe and dreamt
They were overcome for the triumph of Ge.

Yet I knew I should go back
To the world of humans
And that I’d miss you and thus to you return;
In two worlds I lived,
Belonging to neither of them.

Yet once I followed
Sweet calling of nature,
An arrow of Eros
Poisoned my soul,
Drawing me to the town.

Into the world of humans
I walked in haste, I turned away
From forests and moors,
Neglecting my fellows,
Forgetting their care.

Yet now that Chronos
Has healed my heart of love
That turned out to be mistaken
I seek to find the path
Back to your kingdom.

Yet like a stranger I enter the woods,
I no more understand your susurrant speech,
Unknown are the words you utter
For you distrust me now
As I am, truly, one of the humans.

I know you’re there to hear me,
I seek to feel your presence in my heart
Don’t hide yourselves on grassy clearings,
For I did not betray you,
As I always respected you, I shall do forever.

Let us again dance in the moonlight,
Citizens of woods,
Let me embrace you, my fellows,
Spirits with ivy leaves entwined
And clothed in a carpet of moss…