Boris Pasternak
So they begin. With two years gone...

So they begin. With two years gone
From nurse to countless tunes they scuttle.
They chirp and whistle. Then comes on
The third year, and they start to prattle.

So they begin to see and know.
In din of started turbines roaring
Mother seems not their mother now.
And you not you, and home is foreign.

What meaning has the menacing
Beauty beneath the lilac seated,
If to steal children’s not the thing?
So first they fear that they are cheated.

So ripen fears. Can he endure
A start to bear him in successes,
When he’s a Faust, a sorcerer?
So first his gipsy life progresses.

So from the fence where home should lie
In flight above are found to hover
Seas unexpected as a sigh.
So first iambics they discover.

So summer nights fall down and pray
“Thy will be done” where oats are sprouting,
And menace with your eyes the day.
So with the sun they start disputing.

So verses start them on their way.

Translated by Cecil Maurice Bowra