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“I saw you three times …” by Marina Tsvetaeva 🇷🇺 (8 Oct 189231 Aug 1941)
Translated from the Russian by Rolf W. F. Gross
I saw you three times,
But we cannot stay apart.
—After your first sentence
My heart burned through!
I feel you in this darkness,
Like the trembling of young leaves.
You—just a portrait in an album—
And I do not know who you are.
If everything—as they say—happened by chance,
You can close the album …
Oh, this marble brow! Oh, the mystery
Behind your huge forehead!
Look, I was true
Before the call to longing:
My golden mane
Did not know anyone’s hands.
My spirit—has not humbled anyone.
We—souls of various castes.
My incorruptible demon
Will not let me love you.
—“So what was it?”—This
Judgement is passed to another judge,
There are many yet no answers,
And you do not know—who I am.