Sergey Esenin
Never have I set eyes on the Bosphorus...

Never have I set eyes on the Bosphorus.
So please do not ask me what it’s like.
I have seen the fair sea in your glances
With a shimmering blue flame alight.

To Baghdad I have not led a caravan,
I’ve not taken silk or henna there.
Bend your pretty figure, let me settle
By your knees, relaxed and free of care.

Or again, no matter how I urge you.
Do you still, my dear, not give a hoot
That in the far distant land of Russia
I’m well known, a poet of repute?

In my heart I hear a concertina
And the dogs in moonlight bark and whine.
Have you no desire, my Persian beauty,
To set eyes on that blue land of mine?

I did not come here just out of boredom —
You, invisible one, bade me come.
It was your two swanlike arms enfolded
Me like wings, to them did I succumb.

I have long sought such a quiet haven
And, though I don’t curse my former life,
Tell me all about your happy country,
Tell me, tell me anything you like.

Make my heart ache less for concertinas,
Sate me with the breath of fresher charms,
So I sigh not for that other beauty,
Think of her and wish her in my arms.

Though I’ve never set eyes on the Bosphorus,
I’ll invent and tell you what it’s like.
All the same the sea is in your glances
With a shimmering blue flame alight.

Translated by Peter Tempest