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“Don Juan” by Nikolai Gumilev 🇷🇺 (15 Apr 1886 – 26 Aug 1921)
Translated from the Russian by Don Mager
My fantasy is proud and plain:
To grasp the crop, leap the stirrup,
Outrace sluggish time,
And always kiss fresh lips;
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And in old age before Christ’s grace,
With ash on head and eyes cast down
Breast burdened by an iron cross,
At last to take salvation’s burden.
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For only then, released from orgy,
Like sleepwalkers, night done,
Scared white by a silent stalker,
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Might wake, so I recall this paltry atom
Had neither child from any woman
Nor help from any human brother.