Bulat Okudzhava
All night the roosters uttered cries...

All night the roosters uttered cries,
and swayed their necks like crazy,
as if they were reading rhymes
declaiming in a frenzy.

And in those cries there was the kind
of bitterness, aroused
by the unwanted man’s defiant
appearance in the house.

Far-far away the crowing rang,
inept and unavailing,
like the caressing of a man
who has become an alien

when she’s unable to caress
and chary of refusing...
And thus the night dragged on like blessed,
unending
and confusing.

Translated by Alec Vagapov