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“Carmen” by Marina Tsvetaeva 🇷🇺 (8 Oct 189231 Aug 1941)
Translated from the Russian by Ilya Shambat
1.
Divine, childish-plain
The dress is, and short to the plait.
How the sides of a pyramid
Rush sides from the belt.
What big rings there are
On the fingers little and dark!
What big buckles there are
On the tiny shoes!
And people eat and argue,
And people are playing cards.
You do not know, players,
What you have bet on the card!
And she—she needs nothing!
And she—she needs nothing!
Here’s my chest. Tear my heart out—
Carmen—and drink my blood!
2.
She stands, throwing back the throat,
And bit the mouth in blood.
And set the hand against bosom—
The left one—where there is love.
“On your knees!”—“What to you
Are my knees that I should bend,
Abbot?” With these words
Her last night Carmen did end.