Nature

Shorter Poems 37: On a Crystal enclosing a Drop of Water

by Claudian c. 370–c. 404

Translated by Maurice Platnauer (1922) · From Shorter Poems

Nature

Safely hidden away in this round covering is a stream, an errant spring, enclosed within frozen waters. Mark you not how the crystal is all awash in its cavernous heart where living waters surge this way and that, and how, when the sun penetrates its frozen depths, the hues of the rainbow are reflected in it? Wonderful stone, wonderful water: stranger than all rivers and all stones because it is a stone and yet fluid.

This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.

MLA

Claudian. “Shorter Poems 37: On a Crystal enclosing a Drop of Water.” Translated by Maurice Platnauer. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/claudian/65/.

Chicago

Claudian. “Shorter Poems 37: On a Crystal enclosing a Drop of Water.” Translated by Maurice Platnauer. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/claudian/65/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Claudian