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“The four-year-old …” by Marina Tsvetaeva 🇷🇺 (8 Oct 1892 – 31 Aug 1941)
Translated from the Russian by Vladimir Markov & Merrill Sparks
The four-уеаг old,
Eyes icy cold,
Eyebrows, fated already …
Today for the first time
You see the ice-floe
From the Kremlin heights;
Look below.
​
The ice-floe, ice-floe
And cupolas.
Ringing of gold, gold
And silvery tone.
With your arms crossed so,
Mouth still.
Eyebrows knitted…—Napoleon,
You study Kremlin hill.
​
‘Mama—where does the ice go?’
‘Forward—little swan,
Past churches, and palaces, gates below,
Forward, little swan.’
Lovely
Blue eyes now worry:
‘O Marina, you love me?’
‘Surely.’
‘For always?’
‘Yes.’
​
Sunset—and then
Soon home—again.
And you to the nursery, me—
Me, I shall read—rude letters.
And bite lips—so…
​
And the ice-floe
Still
Moves below.