*The Star of The Nativity*


~by Boris Pasternak





Child.

and


Virgin

upon the



The Star of the Nativity gazed,



like a guest above the threshold,



Behold!






of one near the manger, to move him aside..



Then someone in darkness touched the arm



They whispered softly, groping for words.



The Magi remained in the twilight cave.






His hands and feet, in the cold of night.



The breath of the ox and the ass kept Him warm,



as a moonbeam sleeps in a hollow tree.



He slept in His manger in radiant light,






to enter the cleft of the mountainside.



Then Mary allowed the Magi alone,



like flecks of ash from the vaulted sky.



It swept the last of the stars



The dawn!






the asses brayed and the camels bellowed.



Near the well and the wooden water trough,



The footmen quarreled with mounted men.



the drivers and shepherds stamped in the cold.



Before dawnlight, in gloom, in ashen dark,







"There is no room in the cave.. You must wait outside."




we come."


and your glory,
as envoys of Heaven, in praise of the Child,



They spoke, "We come as shepherds of flocks,




"Who are you?" said Mary.



A multitude clustered around the cave.



At dawn the cedars lifted their heads.







and each footprint gleamed as an angels foot.



a Heavenly Host appeared in the throng,



unbodied, unseen by mortal eyes,



Across these valleys and mountain roads,







and huddled beside the shepherd lads.



The dogs grew fearful of ghosts around,



invisibly came to walk in the crowd.



and phantoms from mountain ridges in snows



The frosty night was like a fairy tale,







growled loud in anger, as if at a flame.



But the dogs, on seeing the tracks in starshine,



across bright fields on the way to the inn.



There were footprints that glinted like mica



Their bodies grew warm, walking through snows.







and belted their sheepskin coats.



"Let us go and worship the miracle," they said,



trudging its way by the water mill.



The shepherds could see each ass and camel







where rooks were nesting among the treetops.



A part could be seen afar, from the cliff,



A part of the pond lay hidden by alders.



A wind blew, raging, long from the plain.







and the splendor of tinsel and toys under trees.



the gold and silver of angels and globes,



the tremulous glow of candles in rows,



The yule trees, and the dreams of all children dream...







All the games of fairies, and the work of inventors.



All the future of galleries and of museums.



All thoughts of ages, all dreams, new Worlds.



arose as a vision of wonder in space.



And all new matters of ages to come







came daintily down the hillside.



their caparisoned asses, each one smaller in size



Behind them, their camels with gifts,



marvelous light.


Three stargazers then hastened to follow this







wider, large as a portent.



the flame grew steadily deeper,



Surprised by this new star in the world,





of thatch and hay in the midst of Creation.



It reared in the sky like a flashing stack





like a farmstead ablaze in the night.



apart from God and the sky, like a barn set on fire,



At times it rose, a haystack aflame,







shone bright on the way to Bethlehem.



one Star alone, unseen until then,



And shyer than a watchman's light,







and a sky of stars above the graveyard.



the shafts of a cart deep in drifted snows,



They saw gravestones, fences, fields,





and sleepily gazed into the vast of night.


shook off the wisps of straw and hayseed of their beds,



On a rock afar, some drowsy shepherds







A warm mist drifted over the manger.



Every farmyard beast huddled safe in the cave.



He was warmed by the breath of an ox.



and the infant was cold in the cave on the slope of a hill.



The wind was blowing from the plains,



It was wintertime