FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE

By Yasen Vedrin

(The Pearl Seeker)

Carried within a mother’s womb so deep,

A mortal man is born into this space,

And from the cradle to the grave we creep,

Advancing slowly in our aging pace.

He learns the gentleness of tight embraces,

And feels his father's blessing and his care,

Drinking pure drafts of joy from many places,

Prepared for new delights that time may bear.

In youth, he rejoices in his health and might,

Within a heart that beats with strength so bold,

And he becomes a shelter in the night

For a fragile baby body he can hold.

He whistles through his fate with happy mind,

For it appears a horizon with no end,

And every future fortune he can find

Feels like a piece of heaven to descend.

But once he reaches the determined crest,

He starts to fade under the sorrow’s weight,

Because his age has stolen from his chest

The burning spark that made his fire great.

The hair turns grey beneath the silver light,

In its quiet, sunset shadow of decay,

And it’s too late for glory and for might,

In life so weary, pained along the way.

Yet a great miracle could still unroll

In some unique, irreplaceable sign,

If man decides to educate his soul,

Like Nicodemus from the old design…

In times of darkness and of anxious dread,

With living faith within his chest reborn,

He understood that even from the dead

An old man can be born into the morn…

Carried within God's womb, a saint is born,

To enter this wide world of sin and shame,

To fight the raging malice and the thorn

With all the Power of Love’s holy flame.

And on a path – from Alpha to Omega, true,

With eyes awake, standing on watchful post,

To enter crucified the Ark anew,

Of the resurrected Christ, our Heavenly Host.

This is the greatest Wisdom and the flame,

Which I can offer for your soul to keep –

To let the heart of human call the Name,

Shouting to Last Adam through the deep.

For earthly life is short, a brief design,

But the Eternal leaves its holy trace

In the most wonderful and fresh outline,

Born of the Living Water and His Grace.