Alexander Blok
Wild wind batters...

Wild wind batters
Window-panes,
And hinged shutters
Rudely strains.

Hour of Mass on Easter mom,
Bells far distant, bells forlorn,
Deafness, darkness everywhere;
Only guest, a wind in scorn
Batters on the barrier.

Through the window — void and black;
In the darkness footsteps crack.
There the ice-bound flood breaks free.
There a Bride awaits for me.

How to vile sleep not surrender?
How drive off that guest from here?
Not give up my love so tender
To the cursfcd stranger’s care?

How not throw the world away?
Not despair of everything,
If my only guest’s a wind,
Nothing but a wild black wind
On my household battering?

Why, wind, batter
Window-pane?
And hinged shutter
Rudely strain?

Translated by Cecil Maurice Bowra