Igor Severyanin
To One Different from Others

Youre in no way like other women at all:
You have laughter controlled and expressive,
You wear dresses measured and fashionably long
And you slip out from my embraces.

You do not cut your hair to look upscale,
Deepen brows or wear make up,
You have Smirnoff, but also a nightingale
Who in nature becomes his replacement,

You are able to see in the sugar the salt,
And in just uttered word, a full sentence.
In Akhmatova you value pain without halt
And in Gumilev - charm and cadence.

For you, connoisseur of all kinds of verse,
Sharpness of Sologubov means something,
And that you and Blok never did kiss
You are grieving sixth summer and counting.

And in your eyes, as they are now getting well —
Ocean breeze and a rye field in season.
Youre in no way like other women at all,
And youve become my wife for that reason.

Translated by Ilya Shambat