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“The Cup of Life” by Mikhail Lermontov 🇷🇺 (15 Oct 1814 – 27 Jul 1841)
Translated from the Russian by Cecil Maurice Bowra
We drink the cup of life while yet
A veil our eyes is keeping;
And the cup’s golden brim is wet
With tears of our own weeping.
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But when the veil falls from our eyes.
As Death appears before us.
Then with the veil the mystery flies
That held enchantment o’er us.
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Oh then we see the golden cup
Was empty in its gleaming,
That only dreaming filled it up.
Nor even ours the dreaming!