Mikhail Lermontov
To the Countess Rostopchina

Under the same star, I am sure,
We both crossed the worldly rims;
We stepped along same road poor,
And were deceived by same false dreams.
Well, from my noble goal early
Deprived by passions, wild and strong,
I had forgot, while fighting vainly,
My youthful years’ sacred songs.
And seeing early separation,
I dread to let my heart be free,
And to the sound of deception,
To give the dream that’s vain for me…

Thus two gay waves together pounce,
That met by chance’ became a pair,
In desert of an ocean, fair;
They’re pushed by wild winds of the South:
But a reef’s hard and merciless breast,
Will separate them in one place…
And, full of cold, that’s used to both,
They’ll bear to the different coasts,
Without love and rues for past
Their sweet and pining hums and moans,
Their loud noise and brightness, loaned
And their ever gentle romance.

Translated by Yevgeny Bonver