Under the Seven Stars of Zvenigovo

A cycle of poems «Whispers of Mari El»

Beneath the pines where silence sings,
A fire stirs on ancient rings.
The wind recalls a buried name -
Zvenigovo, from ash and flame.

The drumbeat cracks the frozen sky,
Where swallows once dared not to fly.
The elders rise in silver mist,
And whisper what the stars have missed.

Under the seven stars we kneel,
With wounds no time can ever heal.
Our blood still hums the old refrain -
A lullaby through war and rain.
We stand where shadows bow and fall,
Defiant, dreaming, proud, and small.
The night may claim the world above,
But Mari’s heart still beats with love.

My mother wove a belt of thread,
With every knot a prayer unsaid.
She sang to fields now choked with stone,
And called the gods back, all alone.
The river froze upon her breath,
Yet still she danced the dance of death.
No crown was hers, no throne of gold -
Just courage carved in winter's hold.

The drumbeat cracks the frozen sky,
Where swallows once dared not to fly.
The elders rise in silver mist,
And whisper what the stars have missed.

Under the seven stars we kneel,
With wounds no time can ever heal.
Our blood still hums the old refrain -
A lullaby through war and rain.
We stand where shadows bow and fall,
Defiant, dreaming, proud, and small.
The night may claim the world above,
But Mari’s heart still beats with love.

I found the axe my father wielded,
Half-buried where the birches yielded.
His voice lives in the thunder’s roll,
His grief still haunts the ravens’ toll.
They burned the grove, they stole the flame,
But left the roots untouched by shame.
And when the snow lies thick and deep,
The songs our ancestors swore keep.

Oh, light the pyre with sacred wood,
Let embers speak as only they could.
No grave shall hold this soul tonight -
I ride the comet’s tail of light.
The stars align, the vow takes form,
Through storm and silence, ice and swarm.
If I must fade like morning dew,
Let them remember: we were true.

The fire sleeps beneath the hill,
But dreams are never still.
The stars remain, though none may see -
Zvenigovo… you live in me.