Marina Tsvetaeva
Euridice — Orpheus

Those condemned to their last rags
Cover (not their mouth, not their cheeks!..)
Oh, are you not exceeding your powers
Orpheus, while descending into Hades?

Those giving up their last connection to
Earth... On a bed of lies
I have committed a great dishonesty in contemplating —
A deep sigh — an interview with a knife.

I have paid all the same — for all this rose blood
is a spacious style to cover Immortality...
It's all the same in Lethe's mind
Beloved — I need a break

Forgetfulness... For in the ghostly house appeared
Actually — your ghost, plain and real —
I, was dead... What should I tell you, except:
— «That you didn't notice and left!»

There is no alarm! No cause!
No hands after all! No mouth, clinging to
Lips! — Immortality, the sting of a snake
Ends female passion.

I have paid all the same — in vain my cries! —
For this last insight.
No need for Orpheus to follow Eurydice
And brothers to frighten sisters.

Translated by Rolf W. F. Gross