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“Attitude to a Miss” by Vladimir Mayakovsky 🇷🇺 (1893 – 1930)
Translated from the Russian
That night was to decide
if she and I
were to be lovers.
Under cover
of darkness
no one would see, you see.
I bent over her, it’s the truth,
and as I did,
it’s the truth, I swear it,
I said
like a kindly parent:
“Passion’s a precipice—
so won’t you please
move away?
Move away,
please!”