Alexander Blok
You say I am frozen, and dry, and apart...

You say I am frozen, and dry, and apart, —
Yes, so long as with you I shall wait.
It was not for kind words that I hammered my heart,
Not for friendship I struggled with fate.

You yourself were more sombre, more brave, in time back;
In the stars you could read well and mark
That the nights yet to come are black, endlessly black;
That unknown is the edge of the dark.

See, now it has come. All the world run sastray.
And no beacon’s alight anywhere;
And he who knew not what the stars had to say
The encompassing night cannot bear.

And for them who knew naught of the days that depart.
Or how full is the oncoming night,
Exhaustion and vengeance have darkened their heart,
And in horror their lips are shut tight.

We had days big with hope and with confidence then;
I was simple and trusting as you;
With a child’s open face I went forth among men,
Unafraid of what slander could do.

Tho' you search, of those hopes you will find not a trace;
To far stars all has vanished to-day;
And from those whom I sought with a glad open face,
I turn now in loathing away.

And the very same soul that then waited and burned,
That was ready to yield itself whole, —
By hate and by love it has been overturned;
It is burnt up and shrivelled, that soul.

What remains is the face with set smile and knit brows.
The shut lips and the sorrowful might,
That the blood of insatiate women arouse
And give fire to a beast’s appetite.

Spend yourself not in sighs that will nothing amend,
And beat not, in vain, the shut door;
You will learn nothing there where the poor beasts are penned,
Among those that we called men before.

You must cover your face in a hard iron mask
And worship at sanctified graves;
With that iron to guard Paradise is your task
For a while from the maniac slaves.

Translated by Cecil Maurice Bowra