Marina Tsvetaeva
As people listen intently...

As people listen intently
(a river’s mouth to its source)
that’s how they smell a flower
to the depths, till they lose all sense.

That’s how they feel their deepest
craving in dark air,
as children lying in blue sheets
peer into memory.

And that’s how a young boy feels
when his blood begins to change.
When people fall in love with love
they fling themselves in the abyss.

Translated by Elaine Feinstein