Innokenty Annensky
After The Storm

Did my sad heart, that languishes,
        In craving the storm, not bow
To the white, the crimson flashes?
Yet I’ve fallen in love here, now,
        With pure turquoise, fathomless,
The world’s gaze of weariness.

All that constitutes azure
        Has poured itself out in streams.
Beneath ripples of gold, embroidered;
All that’s free of storm-filled dreams,
        With tenderness in its look, is seen
To have drenched the garden’s green.

Through that turquoise glass
        The storm’s exhausted gaze,
As if from a foreign domain…
None of its harsh displays,
        In sorrowful eyes, still live.
Did you love? Do you forgive?

Translated by A. S. Kline