Marina Tsvetaeva
To a Stranger

Your banners — not mine!
Our heads apart.
Not to betray in the Snake's vice
My Pigeon — Spirit.

Not to start in a red round dance
Around a May tree.
Higher than all earthly gates
Are heaven's gates to me.

Your victories — and not mine!
Others in hallucination!
We aren't on two ends of the Earth —
On two constellations!

What am I doing — we're jealous
Of two different stars —
I, throwing over the bridge
With a brave arm?!

Treasure more precious than the icons
I have with me.
There is another law, covering
The laws — you hear?

Before him all wedges incline,
Dim precious stones.
The law of a stretched-out arm,
Flung open soul.

And we'll be judged with the same
Measure, know.
And heaven in which I believe
Will take us both.

Translated by Ilya Shambat