MARINA TSVETAYEVA

from "Separation"

____________________

Tighter and tighter wringing my hands

Till they be riven—

Between us are not the miles of earth

But the rivers of heaven,

Of separation, the azure lands

Where my friend is forever

Inalienable.

The highway dashes

In silvery harness;

My hands are not wrung now

But open, reaching

Soundlessly,

Like the ash tree climbing

After a flight of cranes.

To fly like the cranes and not look back!

Haughtiness

Would be mine, and in death’s country

In costly dress

I would arrive, to your fleet feathers

A last buttress

In the airy losses of space.