Fyodor Sologub
High in the sky is God’s moon...

High in the sky is God’s moon.
        I feel bad.
Today is a day with blank misery strewn.
        Silent and sad.

No one around, not a mutt, not a bitch
        To go yip-yipe or bark.
All is so tedious, all a dank niche,
        Full of stagnation, dark.

Streets that shine bright with their emptiness,
        Streets that are dead.
No crunching of steps on the iciness,
        Naught but an onerous dread.

Anxiously sniffing the ground,
        Expect trouble and woe.
Somebody’s print of a foot nowhere bound,
        Faintly reeking of snow.

A sudden swift step in the gloom,
        No one wakes up and peers.
Could he be bearing my ultimate doom,
        Two-legged walker who traffics in fears?

Under the cold and the drear of the moon
        I’m alone, life is foul.
Everywhere anguish and agony loom.
        By the window I’ll howl.

High in the sky is God’s moon,
        O so high.
I languish in misery, aggrieved in the gloom,
        Why, o why?

Awaken all canines, you borzois and hounds,
        Loft all your wails out of tune.
Sisters and brothers, yelp out yowling sounds;
        Keen at the sky and the moon! 

Translated by U. R. Bowie