Marina Tsvetaeva
Insomnia
Insomnia my friend.
Again I meet you
offering the lasting cup
in the soundless
ringing night.
Enjoy it.
Take a sip.
Not upwards
but downwards.
I’ll show you …
Such tender lips.
Dear one. Friend.
Take a sip.
Enjoy it.
Drink up.
Stand firm
before all passions –
Stay calm
from all news –
Friend.
Do me the honour.
Open your lips.
Take it from the cut glass cup
with the sweet bliss of your lips.
Take it.
Take it in.
Swallow it down.
Become no one.
O friend don’t take it wrong.
Enjoy it.
Drink up.
The most passionate
of all the passions – the most tender
of all deaths – from the two palms
of my hands – enjoy it – drink up.
The world has gone missing. Into nowhere –
flooded shores …
Drink lastochka moia.* At the bottom
there are shining pearls …
You drink the sea.
You drink the sunset.
I ask you, child, what lover
could compare with
such a spree as this?
But if they ask (I will tell you what to say) –
Tell them that my cheeks looked pale, and how
I’m out on a spree with insomnia,
I’m out on a spree with insomnia …
* My little swallow
Translated by Belinda Cooke
Page(s) 72
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