Marina Tsvetaeva
An attempt at jealousy

How’re you living with another?
Easier? — A splash of oar! —
Has your memory quickly rather
Vanished like an ocean shore?

The memory of me (an island, high
In the sky, not in the sea!);
Souls, o souls... You will be bound by
Sympathy, not fervency!

How’re you living with the common,
Simple woman, godless one?
Once the queen by you dethroned
(And you abdicated then).

How're you living with your vanity?
Falling down, getting up?
Are you mending your mendacity’s
Overflowing cup?

«Cramps and spasms are just too many...
I will find another home».
How’re you living with a plain one,
You — the one I called my own?

Food tastes better, more familiar?
Palls on you... Do not complain...
How’re you living with a failure?
You who've trampled Mount Sinai?

How're you living with a local,
Normal woman from your rib?
Will not shame, like Apollo’s laurel
Sit upon your brow deep?

How's your health and your ability
Chanting songs and making up?
Are you drinking your duplicity’s
Overflowing cup?

How're you living now with paltry
Market? Do taxes hurt?
You who’ve known noble marble,
How does it feel to live with dirt,

With gypsum (from a rock God was sculpted,
And thoroughly smashed to bits!)
How's life with a hundred thousandth —
For you who’ve possessed Lilith?

Are you done with magic forces,
Sated with the market wares;
How're you living with an earthly
Woman without a sixth sense?

How are you really? Happier?
Falling in a shallow cleft?
How is your life, love, is it harsher or
Same as mine after you left?

Translated by Maya Jouravel