David Samoylov
Old Don Juan

(Shabby room in the inn).

Don Juan:

Curse! Endless drumming!
Dreadful nights of nothing in a
Wretched dwelling! Catalina!

Catalina
(enters):
Coming!

Don Juan:

At last! Your gentle
Gaze falls on the truly loving!
Draw some closer to the candle.
Let my suffering have merit!
Hold my hand and…

Catalina:

Quit it! How unbecoming
Of your age.

(Proceeds to exit)

Don Juan:

She flees my torment!
Eve incarne, wicked gender!
Rather choosing youthful servant,
Gladly ready to befriend her.
Evenings spent with boring infants,
Leaving passion unrequited!
What’s the body’s purpose if its
Freshness has forever withered?
Mirror, hide this disappointment!
Wrinkled skin, teeth’s rare count!
Hair no longer fragrant!

(Drops the mirror to the ground).
Stubbornness to leave arena
Battles our feeble conscience.
Every Helen, every Venus
Leave us for seductive servants.
No substance can be soothing,
Only youth enraptured matters
For a whore of highest schooling,
Or a slut, derived from masses.
Aging – what an inhibition!
I have been reduced to torpor
By the rotten contradiction
Of the content and its cover…
Joys of living should be youthful
Even if you in the process
Are unkind, uncouth, untruthful.
Aging – that’s the worst of tortures!
Vengeful Lord, in your destruction
Don’t punish twice but rather
Crush the longing for seduction,
Take away the drives for pleasure!
Lusty serenades! Erotic
Urges by the moonlight dancing!
Why have you become despotic
On the verge of slow passing?
Thus, my ties with wicked gender
Mark an end. Thus ends an era!
Catalina! Catalina!

(Enters Skull of the Commander)

Skull:

Well, greetings, Caballero!
Decades lost, without water,
Light and heat – just sand and ashes.

Don Juan:
(retreats in horror).
Holy Mary! Goodness gracious!
Name yourself!

Skull:

Think of Anna…

Don Juan:

Which one of Annas?
Of Toledo? Of Grenada?
Or perhaps the one who echoes
To this day the song of ardor?
Weeks of mirth, indeed, they happened.
I remember us! Together!
Well, and how is she at present –
Or… I should not raise the matter.
Am I right that once her spouse
Fell a victim to misfortune?
Skull, is that what you are broaching?
I am fully at your service.

Skull:

Let Higher Institution
Guilt to vile creatures render.
You have faced the retribution
Through demise of youthful splendor.
I, Old Skull of the Commander,
Came to gloat, for from this moment
We shall lie together under
Same graveyard, forever dormant.
We shall lie together under
Same graveyard, same gravely features.
I, Old Skull of the Commander,
You, Old Skull of Vile Creature.

Don Juan:
(with laughter):
Rather?
Vengeful for an old affair?
Either you adore to pamper?
Or intend to truly scare?
Scare not! I’ve known reason
With demise at close distance.
While today age yearns to weaken
Fleeting grasp on my existence.

Skull:

The touch of death – contrast it
to pursuits of whore’s embraces.
Your life passed, devoid of spirit.
Filled instead with earthly pleasures.

Don Juan:

In earthy pleasures
Passed my life, and mighty precious
Shall become a sleeping blanket.
What remorse cannot encounter,
An oblivion surrounds.

Skull:

It’s time. The midnight’s thunder.
Moles and worms are making rounds.

Don Juan:

Divinely given,
Flesh and charm have been exhausted.
Lead the way, o morbid villain,
Have your foe remotely hosted,
Serving justice to your mission.
But do tell me, Skull, what cometh
At that juncture, beyond numbness,
Beyond silence.

Skull:

What cometh?
Darkness, sealed from will and vision…

Translated by Alexander Weizman