Innokenty Annensky
It happened in Vallen-Koski...

It happened in Vallen-Koski¹,
The rain descended from somber clouds,
And planks of wood, yellow and sodden,
Plunged over the mournful rocks.

After such a cold night we were yawning,
Tears stood in our eyes:
To divert ourselves, for the fourth time,
We threw a doll into the waters.

The swollen doll plunged
Into the white-flecked hill,
Where il whirled tor a long time al first
As though straining to return.

But in vain the foam licked
The joints of its hard pressed .arms —
Its rescue could only release it
To new ever-changing pangs.

See, already the turbulent current
Grows yellow, is meek and languid;
The Finnish fellow earned
Fail and square what he charged tor the job.

And now the doll's on a rock.
And the river flows farther on...
This comic event tor me,
That gray morning was somber indeed.

Sometimes the sky is that way,
Play of light upon light,
So the heart feels the hurt of a doll
More acutely than its own.

We grow sensitive then like leaves:
To us gray stone, coming alive,
Is i friend, and a friend's voice sounds
Out of tune like a child's violin.

And deep in the heart is the knowledge
That with it the fear was born
That in the world it is alone,
Like an old doll In the water...

___
1. A waterfall from the river Vuoksi in Estonia.

Translated by Lubov Yakovleva and Daniel Weissbort