On Parting

[Ilya Shambat]

Teasing and tempting and playing

We loved like children, us both

But somebody, hiding a smile,

Set up the ungentle nets -

And here we are at the harbor,

Not seeing the wished-for abodes,

But knowing that I will be yours

In the heart, without words, until death.



You told me of all things - so early!

I guessed them so late! In our hearts

A wound is eternal, a silent

Question exists in our eyes,

The desert on earth is so endless,

The heaven, so high, has no stars,

Revealed is the tender secret,

And frost rules for centuries.



I will talk to shades! O my dear,

To forget you I do not have might,

Your visage can't move under shadow

Of eyelids gone over my eyes...

It's darkening... Shutters have closed,

On all things descending is night...

I love you, one ghostly-eternal,

And only you - and always!


By Marina Tsvetayeva
Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat
https://sites.google.com/site/ibshambat