"Kindness"

I attempted to construct this based on a translation provided by a friend from a Bulgarian poem and on the sudden random empathy I felt for its words.
I'm sure I'll want to revise it further.

note: there is a word which frequently occurs as the same word in Bulgarian which means both Kind and Good. I have translated it into many other words, depending on what I felt like connoting in each verse because Kind and Good just don't have the right bundles of significance with them in English.



Sometimes I am so full
that brimming, I shudder to contain
the joy which overflowing, pains
the limits of my body's frame

my very veins and vessels, tangled thick
threaten to burst - a single prick, I long for
to relieve this beauty from its strain
and release me, finding what I truly am within.

Sometimes I am so real!
The boxwood shrub and holly take me in
and gathered in their basket, where my hands
are sought and found by unawaited, unanticipated games

Sometimes I shine like honey,
Then, brilliant lips love me.
Sometimes, a golden sunflower,
As beautiful as the head of a girl.

Sometimes, I am true and white!
How rarely that I glow this bright!
I want a gift to give for everyone - a dream -
I want to share with them - And for my whole love

to burst in pieces, a shattered pane of glass,
glistening pieces scattered into hands
so kind and warm. - And to the tangled roots, to give
some sap to keep the secret that I live!