Alexander Blok
Before the court

What, are you grown dull now and perplexed?
Look at me as you used to.
See What in abasement you’ve become,
In the sharp incorruptible light of day!

I am myself not what I was — no longer
Distant, proud, and pure and wicked.
I look upon the simple boring earthly round
With more despair, and more benignity.

I not only have not the right,
I lack the strength to reproach you
With the sly and cruel path, the path
Allotted to so many women.

But come now, I’m a little different
From the others; I know your life;
Better than your judges
I know How you came to be on the edge.

There was a time we were together,
A fatal passion drove us on,
Together we tried to throw off
The burden, to fly so we should later fall.

It was your dream that, burning,
We’d burn out together, our destiny
To die in each other’s arms,
And dying find the blessed regions.

What if that dream proved false,
Like every dream, and life instead
Mercilessly flogged us
With the crude thongs of a knout?

We are not in a mood for hurried life
And the dream is true that lied to us,
Yet, all the same, did you not once
Find happiness with me?

This thread — it is so golden
It cannot surely come from an old fire? —
Passionate, godless, empty,
Unforgettable, forgive me!

Translated by Geoffrey Thurley