From: ibshambat@gmail.com   
      
   1   
      
      
   Icy tiara of mountains -   
      
   Is a frame to transitory sight.   
      
   A parting of ivy today   
      
   I traced on the castle's granite.   
      
       
      
   I have chased today on all roads   
      
   Towering figures of pines.   
      
   I have taken a tulip today   
      
   Like a child to the chin.   
      
      
      
   2   
      
       
      
   With surrounding of mountains I hug you,   
      
   With the granite crown of rocks.   
      
   (That you breathe easier and sleep tighter   
      
   I am busying you with talk.)   
      
       
      
   With the sides of a feudal castle,   
      
   With the ivy hands of down -   
      
   You know - in four hundred streams and rivers   
      
   Is the ivy, hugging the stone?   
      
       
      
   But I'm not woodbine - and not ivy!   
      
   Even you, dearer than my hand,   
      
   Are not flattened - and freely let out   
      
   Onto every side of my mind!   
      
       
      
   Round the flower-bed, round the well too,   
      
   Where to grey-haired ones stone will come,   
      
   With the round pledge of an orphan -   
      
   With the loneliness my round!   
      
       
      
   (Thus not one silver braid did weave   
      
   Into my light-brown braids!)   
      
   And with river, into two parting -   
      
   Island to create - and embrace.   
      
       
      
   With entire Savoy and Piedmont   
      
   And - cracking the ridge of blue -   
      
   I embrace you with blue horizon,   
      
   With two arms I'm embracing you.   
      
      
      
       
      
   3   
      
       
      
   (CAVE)   
      
       
      
   If I could - I would take you   
      
   Into the womb of a cave:   
      
   Into the cave of a dragon,   
      
   Into the panther's grove.   
      
       
      
   Into the panther's - paws -   
      
   If I could - I would take, so.   
      
       
      
   To bosom of nature, to bed of nature.   
      
   If I could - my own skin of panther   
      
   I'd take off... I would give in the grove - to study!   
      
   In bushy, in firry, in streamy, in ivy -   
      
       
      
   Where in darkness, in dusk, and in dreaming   
      
   Branches weave for eternal weddings!   
      
       
      
   Where in granite, in milk and in bast   
      
   For centuries intertwine arms -   
      
   Like branches –   
      
   And rivers...   
      
       
      
   Into cave without light, without trace into thicket.   
      
   In leaves, in ivy, in ivy - like in coat...   
      
       
      
   Not white light, not black bread: in dew   
      
   In leaves, in leaves - like in relationship too...   
      
       
      
   That did not knock on the door,   
      
   That henceforth did not happen,   
      
   That did not shout in window,   
      
   That for century didn't end!   
      
       
      
   But not enough - cave,   
      
   And not enough - grove!   
      
   If I could - I would take you   
      
   Into the womb of a cave.   
      
       
      
   If I could -   
      
   I would take.   
      
      
      
       
      
   4   
      
       
      
   On the ice floe -   
      
   Loved one,   
      
   On the mine -   
      
   Loved one,   
      
   On the ice floe, in Guyana, in Gehennah - loved one.   
      
       
      
   In the scab - desired one,   
      
   From churchyard - desired one:   
      
   Be a desired guest! Only teeth and bone - desired one!   
      
       
      
   With the under-knees angst   
      
   Till ruined darkness   
      
   By the last fight of the womb - pitied it is.   
      
       
      
   And there's no such hole, and there's no such abyss:   
      
   Loved one! Wished one! Pitied one! Struck by illness!   
      
      
      
       
      
   5   
      
       
      
   With rapid speech - with stream of water   
      
   Beating: - Loved one! Sick one! Dear!   
      
       
      
   With recitation - lingering blues:   
      
   Weak! Half-alive! Paper! See-through!   
      
       
      
   With lengthwise cut from stomach to pharynx:   
      
   Loved one! Wished one! Pitied one! Struck by illness!   
      
       
      
   6   
      
       
      
   Finally I've encountered   
      
   One that I do need:   
      
   Somebody possesses   
      
   Deadly need of me.   
      
       
      
   What to eye is rainbow,   
      
   Topsoil to the grain,   
      
   To man - is being needed   
      
   By another man.   
      
       
      
   I need more than rainbow,   
      
   More than rain or hand,   
      
   Need of my assistance   
      
   By another man.   
      
       
      
   This - wider than Ladoga   
      
   Than mountain more true -   
      
   Is need of my hand   
      
   By another's wound.   
      
       
      
   And for this that ulcerous   
      
   Palm you brought to me -   
      
   This my hand - immediately   
      
   In fire after thee!   
      
      
       
      
   <7>   
      
       
      
   In thoughts of another, otherwise,   
      
   Like a treasure chest not found,   
      
   Poppy by poppy, step by step - garden's   
      
   I cut off the head.   
      
       
      
   Thus, sometime in a dry summer,   
      
   On the very edge of field,   
      
   Death my light-haired head will sever   
      
   With an absent-minded hand.   
      
      
      
      
   By Marina Tsvetayeva   
   Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)