Marina Tsvetaeva
Girlfriend. 11. Some day or other, every eye...

Some day or other, every eye
under the sun burns, even weeps,
stung with desire for someone;
things change, day differs from day;
I know you worry
I’ll one day stray,
so I tell you this now: even in that
impossible case—

not even if I did kiss
another’s lips in some impassioned hour,
no matter what awesome midnight oath
I swore to be true to someone else—

all you’d need do
to annul it is—be you.
Just be yourself (as everyone’s mother
some time or other instructs).
Rarest flower, just bloom!
You never need be on the lookout.

See that cypress-wood cross on the wall?
You know what it means: resurrection.
As sure as springtime must come
and the bare forest trees re-awaken,
all you’d ever need do
is whistle under my window—
I’ll come back to you.

Translated by Seraphina Powell