Marina Tsvetaeva
Poets. 2. There are the extras, the unneeded...

2

There are the extras, the unneeded
That do not fit within the norm.
(Not counting in your dictionaries
To them the landfill is their home).

There are the hollow, the pushed-down,
There are the mute — like dung,
Nail — to your silken skirt hem!
Dirt from under the wheels is wrung!

There are the unseen, the imaginary:
(Sign: speck of an autumn hen!)
There are the Jobs within the world
That would have envied Job — when:

We're poets — and in rhyme with pariahs,
But from the shore thus having gone,
We argue over God with goddesses
And argue over girls with gods!

Translated by Ilya Shambat