Innokenty Annensky
The work basket

Meditations have words that are soundless;
How I love to seek them in the silence!
It is necessary only that,
                                       black and lifeless,
Night should forget itself more fully,
Night should forget itself faster
Among its sparse street lights,
                Round the corner
        Like a forsaken house...
Should forget itself among the quiet dining
Rooms above you, in the lilac-colored...
        That from the tablecloth the trembling
        Circle should not let down its yellow
        Overflows, and gleamings of slowed hands
        Should separate gray threads there.
And that you with anguish should separate
These threads one after the other, should
        Separate and afterwards roll them up,
        And with lilac openness the needle
        Should go after the shining thread...
And then, unconcernedly bright,
        With the quiet squeaking of straw
        Hinges, carefully pinning the sheets.
        There you too, Virtue, should fall sleep
        Between confusedly tender skeins...

Translated by R. H. Morrison