Sagittarius
by Dan Mitrut
Under the shadow of the arrow,
young clusters die.
Over the southern sky,
an ecliptical burden.
The hunter-scientist keeps silent,
lying in wait for a tempest:
half of a man, half of a comet.
The orbit becomes
love in his heart,
and the vernal wish --
a light of chalk.
Copyright © 2003, Dan Mitrut
Sagittarius
by Johannes Hevelius
~ English translation from the Romanian by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe ~
Romanian lawyer and poet Dan Mitrut is the author of numerous works of astronomical poetry, folk music, photography, graphics, sculpture, and drama. A meteor observer included in the International Meteor Organization Data Base, he is a multiple laureate for the astronomical arts at the Cosmopoetry Festival of the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy-SARM. He serves as the technical vice president of SARM and has authored original astro-folk music recitals performed at the EuRoEclipse Perseids 99 (Romania) and the IMO Conference 2000 (Romania).