Without fraud your grandfather's unknown past
is your estate, your forebears' pedigree;
don't scrutinize the registry of Time,
or part silence's veil of secrecy.
Just see what happened to that daring youth,
misguided spectacle of days gone by:
to prove that he descended from the Sun
proved, falling, he descended from the sky.
Don't tamper with your kin's long-buried bones;
you'll find more worms than crests residing there
when newly questioned witnesses tell all.
For with each bit of evidence you add,
you may find as the bonfires multiply
a proof akin to Phaëthon's famous fall.
Translated by Alix Ingber