Ivan Bunin
Goddess

There’s jasmine altar, canopy shrine,
And virgins whitely dressed in rows.
Where the reed’s incense is smoking
Before the crystal statue of the goddess,
That putting down narrow its goat's eyes.

A forest, morn, heat. An emerald’s green,
That in the crystal chrysolite shines.
On table highly forged from a gold
Sat, as the Buddha, she relaxed,
The pure on the earth and in the paradise.

Mysterious and fragile is her sight,
That twinkles frigidly as dead.
Under the oblique eyebrows her raised,
With swamp and evil smile ahead,
That partly lits her shining face.

Translated by Galina Devyatkina