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“Today was melting …” by Marina Tsvetaeva 🇷🇺 (8 Oct 189231 Aug 1941)
Translated from the Russian by Ilya Shambat
Today was melting, and today
Before the window I did stand.
A sober look, a freer chest,
I’m satisfied just once again.
I don’t know why. Perhaps the soul
Has simply grown tired of it all,
And somehow the rebellious pencil
I do not wish to touch at all.
Distant to good and evil both,
Inside the fog I stood, and thus,
Was lightly drumming with my finger
Upon the barely sounding glass.
It is indifferent to the soul
Than this one you first met—say I—
Than mother-of-the-pearl mud puddles
Where in full pleasure splashed the sky,
Than bird that overhead is flying
And dog that’s simply running by
And even the impoverished singer
Did not begin to make me cry.
The dear art of oblivion
The soul has mastered all the way.
Some overwhelmingly big feeling
Melted within my soul today.