Alexander Blok
The winter day is cold and snowy...

The winter day is cold and snowy,
White is the harbor, hard the ground.
A heavy liner, outward bound,
Is moving carefully and slowly.

One yellow solitary lamp
Sways in the wind its ghostly halo,
The outlines of the crane and silo
Are blacker than the sky, and damp.

Look how that sailor, left behind,
Reels in the snow along the shore.
All drunk away, gone with the wind!
Enough, I cannot anymore...

Fresh flakes have fallen, cold and light.
The empty harbor is snowed under.
Say, sailor, is it sweet to slumber,
Cloaked in your shroud, so gentle and so white?

Translated by Yakov Hornstein