Zinaida Gippius - Electricity

Two threads are twined together

Exposed are their hearts.

Those “Yes” and “No” aren’t blended,

Entwined remain apart.

Their dusky intersection

Is lifeless and confined,

There will be resurrection,

And they await that time.

The ends will meet caressing,   

Those “Yes” and “No” unite,   

And “Yes” and “No” are pressing,

While waking and embracing,

In death they’ll turn to Light.

1901

Translated by Dina Belyayeva

Russian Original

Biography

Konstantin Balmont - My Friend

* * *

My friend, there’s joy and love, and all’s
Recurring in this ancient world,                        

Although not in our hearts, in others’.           

But my dear mate, and you and me -

We’re only Beauty’s reverie,

We’re drops in the eternal chalice   

Of timeless blooms that ever last,

In gardens that forgo the past.

Translated by Dina Belyayeva 


Russian Original

Biography

Marina Tsvetaeva - I Like

***
I like that you are not obsessed with me,
I like that I have no obsession either,
And not for once in the eternity
The heavy earth beneath our feet will wither
I like I can be funny and be free,
Be careless with words and never bother
To be betrayed by tide of blush when we 
Brush with our sleeves when passing one another. 

I also like that in my company
You’re confident enough to hug the other,
You don’t foretell infernal suffering 
To me for being kissed by other lovers.
I also like you never call in vain 
The sweet  inflection of my name, my sweetie
And that we’ll never live to see the day
When wedding bells hail us with nuptial greetings.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart
For loving me so much quite unawares:
For nightly peace that you will never thwart,
For twilight dates that can not be more scarce,
For moonlight walks that we will never start,
And for the sun above that'll never wear us,
For you, alas, who’re not obsessed with me,
For me, alas, with no obsession either.

May 3rd, 1915

Translated by Dina Belyayeva

Russian original

Biography

Innokenty Annensky

                        * * *
Through macrocosm and scintillating orbs
I say the name of One Celestial Lover…
Not that I have been loving Her before,
But that I have been wearied by the others. 

And if the doubt exacts a heavy toll,
She is the One I’m begging for true guidance,
Not that She brings more light into the world,
But that with Her one'd be content in darkness.

1901

Translated by Dina Belyayeva

Russian original

Biography

Nikolai Gumilev - Beatrice

Muses, enough, cease your sobbing, 
Pour out your grief into singing, 
Sing about Dante soul-stirring,
Or play the flute, play with feeling. 

Move on, annoying faun deities,
Music is dead in your screaming!
Haven’t you learned only lately
Beatrice exited Eden.

All white and strange Rose is lurking
In quiet chill of the evening …
What’s this? Additional warning?
Or is this plea for forgiving?

There lived a flustered artist
Used to the worldly deceptions – 
Sinner, seducer... impious,
Beatrice was the exception.

Poet’s reclusive affection
Turned into luminous currents,
Turned into torrents of passion,
Tugging away at his heartstrings.

Muses, in this splendid sonnet
Render the riddle to setting,
Sing about Dante, be certain, 
Gabriel Dante Rossetti.

Translated by Dina Belyayeva

Russian original

Biography

Anna Akhmatova - The Grey Eyed King

Blessings to you, the unbearable pain!
Our fair gray eyed king will no longer reign.

One autumn evening was stuffy and red,
My dear old husband solemnly said:

“Hunters brought him all wrapped up in a cloak,
They found his dead body at the old oak.

Pity the queen. He was so young and gay!..
Just overnight her brown locks turned to gray.”

Then from the mantle he picked up his pipe, 
And he departed for work in the night.

I shall wake up my small daughter from sleep,
Stare in her gray eyes and quietly weep.

Out poplars rustle as if they deplore:
“Your gray eyed king is with us no more…”

December 11, 1910
Tsarskoye Selo

Translated by Dina Belyayeva

Russian original

Biography