Marina Tsvetaeva
Ophelia: in Defence of the Queen

Prince, let’s have no more disturbing
these wormy flower-beds. Look at
the living rose, and think of a woman
snatching a single day — from the few left to her.

Prince Hamlet, you defile the Queen’s
womb. Enough. A virgin cannot
judge passion. Don’t you know Phaedra
was more guilty, yet men still sing of her,

and will go on singing. You, with your blend
of chalk and rot, you bony
scandalmonger, how can you ever
understand a fever in the blood?

Beware, if you continue... I can
rise up through flagstones into the grand bed-chamber
of so much sweetness, I myself, to defend her.
I myself — your own undying passion!

Translated by Elaine Feinstein