From The Real Tuesday Weld.

Last year, I was asked (by my friend Alex Budovsky) to provide an English translation and voice-over for an animated version of the Boris Pasternak poem The Star of the Nativity.

Here it is

I have friends in both Russia and Ukraine, and several who have had to leave their country because of the conflict. May that conflict end soon, and may Pasternak’s words remind us that the most important thing is, and has always been, peace – at Christmas and at all times.

Love to you

Stephen x

The Star
Directed by Natalia Berezovaia
Full credits at the end
—-
On winds from the steppes
The winter blew chill.
A babe cold as he slept
In a hole, in a hill

The breath of an ox
And the beasts in the cave
Surrounding his cot
Warmed him with their haze.

Shaking clear of their sleep
And beds made of hay
Shepherds gaze to the deep
From the hill where they lay

Far fences and fields,
A churchyard enclave
A cart shaft without wheels
Starry sky over graves

Shy as a candle alight
In a watchman’s window
A new star in the night
Over Bethlehem glows

Like a hayrick fire raging
Freed from god and from sky
Like a farmstead set blazing
It lights up the heights

The new star there, flaming
Hot as hay in a pyre
The world all amazing
With its sparkling fire

Its aura gleams red
A summons, a sign
To three stargazers who sped
To reach it in time

Behind them were camels
With extravagant gifts
And donkeys all trammelled
Descending the cliffs.

—-
And all that would pass –
In future times yet unseen
All the art, all the acts
Gathered there like a dream

All the tinsel and sprites
Childhood’s magical spells,
The Christmas tree lights
The candles, the bells

The lamp lights all glowing
The baubles and fruit.
But from the steppes blowing
Fierce wind shows the truth
—-

From the cliff through the rooks’ nests
Near a mill pond by trees
The shepherds mark progress
Of camels, men and donkeys

"As witness, we’ll join them
For this miracle," they exclaim
Wrapped in sheepskin to warm them
To follow on is their aim

But melting the snow drifts
Over fields by the inn
The starlight lit footprints
Set the sheep dogs growling

Through frosted night like a folk tale
The beings process
Across snow ridge and ice vale
Amidst the dogs’ nervousness

Unseen angels walk by
The men on the road
Only footprints and starlight
Mark the way that they go

Mary asks what they need as
They crowd round the cave
As dawn lights the cedars
’We’ve come to give praise!

Angel, animals, men”
“But all will not fit!”
So the shepherds wait then
The beasts grumble and kick

Stars pale into daylight.
For all those stood at bay
Mary signs to the Maji
To enter the cave

Where like a tree-hollowed moonbeam
He sleeps in his cot
His cover just warm steam
Breathed by donkey and ox

By the manger, the Magi
Whisper ’til a hand
Points out from the twilight
And directs their glance

Through the door where another
Guest is observing
For the star still above her
Is watching the Virgin