slime mold enjoyer

Plus Ultra by Jacint Verdaguer.

Original poem in Catalan:

    estello, fai-te clara,       car cerque moun camin.

Allà dellà de l’espai he vist somriure una estrella perduda en lo front del cel com espiga en temps de sega, com al pregon de l’afrau una efímera lluerna. -Estrelleta –jo li he dit-, de la mar cerúlia gemma, de les flors de l’alt verger [heaven] series tu la darrera? -No só la darrera, no; no só més que una llanterna de la porta del jardí que creies tu la frontera. És sols lo començament lo que prenies per terme. L’univers és infinit, pertot acaba i comença, i ençà, enllà, amunt i avall, la immensitat és oberta, I a on tu veus lo desert eixams de mons formiguegen. Dels camins de l’infinit són los mons la polsinera que puja i baixa a sos peus quan Jehovà s’hi passeja.

English:

star, shine bright for I am searching for my path.

Up there, on the other side of space I have seen a star smile lost in the sky's front like a wheat spike in reaping time, like the depths of a canyon an ephemeral torch. "Little star" I have told her, "out of the sea's cerulean gems, out of the flowers of the tall lush [=Heaven] would you be the last one?" "I am not the last one, no; I am nothing more than the lantern at the garden's gate that you believed to be the border. What you took for an end, is only the beginning. The universe is infinite, it ends and starts everywhere, and since, further up there, up and down, the immensity is open, And there where you see the desert swarms of worlds teem. The worlds are the dust of the infinity's paths that are moved up and down at his feet when Jehovah [God] takes a walk in them.

Jacint Verdaguer is one of the most beloved Catalan poets of all times. He lived in the 19th century and was very involved in the Catalan revival movement, defending Catalan folk culture and language. He was also deeply religious and became a Catholic priest since an early age.