Marina Tsvetaeva
Student. 1. To be your light-haired little fellow...

1

To be your light-haired little fellow —
Oh, through all years! —
To drape a student behind your dusty purple
In cloak severe.

To catch through people's density your sigh
That life does give
With soul that lives with your breath, like a cloak
With blowing wind.

More victorious than King David, with shoulder
The crowd to move.
To serve from all slights, all earthly slights
As cloak to you.

To be he who between the sleeping students
In sleep won't dream.
A shield, and not a cloak, at the first stone
That crowd brought in.

(This verse's not stopped willfully! The knife is
Sharp to no end!)
And — with inspired smile — to be the first your
Fire to ascend.

Translated by Ilya Shambat