The Gate of Dawn, Vilnius, Lithuania

"Lithuania! My country! You are like health,
How precious you must be, only he can tell
Who has lost you. I see your beauty now
In all its glory and describe it, because I long for you.

Holy Virgin, guardian of radiant Częstochowa,
You who shine through the Gate of Dawn,
You who watch over steadfast Nowogród and its people!
As you once healed me in childhood, so miraculous—
When in your care, from my grieving mother’s arms,
I opened my long-closed eyes
And was able to step to your temple’s door,
To offer thanks to God for life restored—
So also may you restore us,
Miraculously, to our homeland’s bosom.
Meanwhile, may you carry my soul from the gloom of longing
To those forested hills, those evergreen meadows
Spread wide where the blue Neman flows;
To those vast fields painted in varied grain colors,
A landscape gilded in wheat, silvered with rye,
Where amber is the buckwheat and white as snow,
Where red clover blooms like a maiden’s blush,
And where green furrows entwine as ribbons, within which
Wild pear trees may sometimes be seen."

Sir Thaddeus - invocation
Adam Mickiewicz

#wilno #vilnius #miasto #city #ulica #street #brama #gate #litwa #lithuania #lietuva #ostrabrama #gateofdawn #poezja #poetry #architektura #sacralarchitecture #architecture