Marina Tsvetaeva

POSTED IN classic poetry July 12, 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Terminal Silhouette

I know you not and in no way
I want to lose starry illusions
With such a face in worst confusion
People are loyal to a ray.

All that the fate has marked for grave
Have such closed-off face instead.
You are a page that was not read
And no, you will not be a slave.

A slave with such a face? Oh no!
There is no error here by chance.
Your slender figure and your glance
Will be secret to many, I know.

A heavy bracelet of your hair
Under the thrown-over scarf
(You’d do with guitar or a harp)
And your pale face, as pale as air.

I know you not. And possibly
You’re kind and moderate like all.
Maybe! May these be ravings all!
For only raving ones may be!

Perhaps the day is not so far
When I will fathom what’s unseemly…
But this to err – it is so relieving!
It is so easy yet to err!

Touching the scarf with a light hand,
There where the whistles shrilly blow.
This is the you that I will know
Where you just like a riddle stand.

………………………………………………………………..

Lady with Camelias

Your whole way with shining evil’s coal
Margaret, they all do bravely judge.
What’s your fault? The body sinned as such,
Innocent you have retained your soul.

To all people it’s the same, I know,
To all nodded with a blurry smile.
And with this sorrowful semi-smile
You have wept yourself long time ago.

Who will know? Whose hand will help along?
No exception to the rule, one thing entrances!
They eternally await embraces,
They eternally await, “I’m thirsty! Be my own!”

Day and night the bane of false confessions..
Day and night, tomorrow, and once more!
Spoke more eloquently than the word
Your dark glance, the martyr’s dark expression.

The accursed ring is growing narrow,
On the goddess of the world avenges fate..
Smiling childishly, into your face
A young tender boy glances with sorrow.

The entire world is saved by love!
In but her salvation and defense is.
All’s in love. O Margaret, sleep in peace.
All’s in love. I’m saved because I love.

…………………………………………………………………

To Mother

In the old Strauss waltz for the first time
We had listened to your quiet call,
Since then all the living things are alien
And the knocking of the clock consoles.

We, like you, are gladly greeting sunsets,
And are drunk on nearness of the end.
All, with which on better nights we’re wealthy
Is put in the hearts by your own hand.

Bowing to a child’s dreams with no tire.
(Only crescent looked in them indeed
Without you)! You have led your kids past
Bitter lifetime of the thoughts and deeds.

From the early age the sad one’s close to us,
Laughter bores and home we left behind..
Our ship not in good times left the harbor
And it sails by will of every wind!

Azure isle of childhood is paling,
On the deck of ship we stand alone.
It appears, oh mother, to your daughters
You’ve left an inheritance of woe.

……………………………………………………………….

Books in Red Binding

From heaven of a childhood life
A farewell to me you’re sending,
The ever-loyal dear friends
Within a red worn down binding.
On learning homework from school,
At once I ran to see you yet.
“It’s late” – “Please, Mother, ten more lines” –
But happily she did forget.
The fires flicker in a lamp..
How nice it is to read at home!
To sounds of Greeg, Schumann and Kui
I learned about the fate of Tom.
It’s dark.. the air is growing cold..
Tom’s full of faith in Becky’s joy.
Within the darkness of the cave
Wanders with torch Indian Joe..
A cemetery.. owl is screaming..
(I’m scared) And now through hassocks flies
The punctilious widow’s foster-child,
Like in a barrel Diogenes.
Lighter than Sun is the throne hall,
Over the graceful boy – a crown..
At once – a beggar! God! He said:
“Forgive, I’m heir to the throne.”
To darkness comes, who comes from her.
Sad is the destiny of Britain..
O, wherefore not amid red books
Not to go back to sleep again
Before a lamp? O golden times
Where sight is braver, heart is purer:
O golden times, I say again:
Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, Prince and Beggar!

……………………………………………………………………

New Moon

Over meadow stands new moon,
Over boundary of dew.
Come, we’ll make a friend of you,
Dear, distant, alien.

In the day I hide, am quiet.
Moon above – I have no might!
I rush on this lunar night
To the shoulder of beloved.

I’ll never ask me, “Who’s he?”
All to know, your lips will say!
Hugs are rude but in the day,
In the day the fit is funny.

In the day, torn by a demon proud,
With a smile on lips I lie.
Night, though.. Darling, far away..
Crescent stands above the wood!

…………………………………………………………………………..

Contact through Dreams

All’s for a moment, that people create,
Glimmer of new things dims,
But yet unaltered, like sorrow, remains
Contact through dreams.

Calming.. If but to forget.. but to sleep..
Sweetness of eyelids over eyes..
Dreams open fates of the future, and bind
For centuries.

All that I stealthily thought, is to me
Clear like a crystal clean.
Us, with a timeless and endless riddle,
United the dream.

I do not pray, “O God, make to vanish
Torment of coming day!”
Oh no, “Oh God, send to him about me
A dream,” I pray.

May I get pale at the meeting with you –
Sorrowful is it to meet!
Secret is one: The contact through dreams. We are
Powerless before it.

X                         X                            X

Azure are the fields, where our dreaming had met.
Don’t rush my memory!
Be truthful: Anew you’ll touch the silver cup
Not soon with a one such as me.

All’s destroyed, not by our volition. And sweet
Is the sigh over lost heaven! May be! –
You’re all – May’s! For you is my sorrow of May.
All that’s dreamed of in May is for thee.

Here we don’t need to rendezvous. Truly, we’ll meet
Where the truth with the truth I shall meet;
Every evening on bridges shaky and light
We come out one another to greet.

A familiar figure I’ll see from afar –
Heart beats rarely, then frequently, though…
Like before you’re not wrathful, not vengeful, oh no!
And your eyes are the same, full of woe.

These are dreams. To us both the night is still dear,
Bravely breaking all barriers so.
But the image of her that could not lie, my friend,
Once awakened, don’t chase like a foe.

And when he will appear in the evening shade
Under call of a previous song,
Nod to happiness that has elapsed with a smile
And recall without rage the one gone.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Except for Love

Did not love, did not weep. Oh no, did not love, but regardless
I have showed in the shadows the beloved likeness to you.
In our sleep all things did not appear like love:
No cause, no clues.

From the evening hall only to us nodded this image,
Only we – you and me – to it pitiful verses bore.
What has bound us stronger than love has bound others
Is that we adore.

But the gust was escaped, and tenderly somebody approached,
He who could not have prayed, but did love. To judge do not hurry!
Like the most tender note in awakening of the soul
You’re memorable to me.

In this sorrowful soul you had wandered, like in open house..
(In our house, in the spring)… Forgotten don’t call me!
All my minutes are filled with you, except for love –
The most melancholy.

Marina Tsvetaeva