Ilya Selvinsky
Sonnet

I have by fame and infamy been tested,
I’ve suffered war and passion’s trials long;
With Yugoslavs I’ve games of dice contested,
And Chukchi hunter’s sung to me his song.

I’ve heard the smoky octaves of the tiger,
The simian Nazi soldier’s deadly bawl,
With Emperor Peter I was at Poltava,
And I have talked with Faust about it all.

It seems that in this world I have been carried
For aeons now, a thousand years I’ve tarried…
I’ve seen it all before. What now is left?

But gazing through the future’s mist’s blue prism,
The blessing that
    without I
        am bereft
Is just to get one glimpse of Communism.

Translated by Rupert Moreton