*tuule makett - Infopoint Estonian Culture

4 7 / Betti Alver
■ Corals in an Ancient River
A shimmering rainbow’s high ridge
arched over the river that day.
We stood on the cast-iron bridge;
ahead lay your iron-paved way.
Time’s treasures were spilled at my feet:
ahead lay your iron-paved way.
I turned and, with no need to speak,
threw my red coral necklace away.
Times’s treasures have all lost their lustre,
God’s truth has a dull, lifeless glimmer;
but the river flows stronger and faster
where the beads of coral still shimmer.