Anna Akhmatova
On the blooming lilac bushes...

On the blooming lilac bushes
Sky is sowing the light rain.
Beats with wings upon the window
The white, the white Spirits' day.

For a friend to be returning
From the sea - especial hour.
I am dreaming of the far shore,
Of the stone, sand and tower.

I will enter, meeting light,
On the top of one of these.
In the land of swamps and fields
There're no towers in memory.

Only I'll sit on the porch,
There, where the dense shadows lay.
Help me in my fright, at last,
The white, the white Spirits' day.

Translated by Ilya Shambat