Sergey Esenin
Secret world, old world of mine...

Secret world, old world of mine,
Windlike, you crouch expectant and still.
Look, the stone arms of the highway
Squeeze the village's neck - to kill.

Hither, thither the powers of terror
Over the snowbound country race.
Hello, you there, my black destroyer,
I go to meet you face to face!

City, city, you fight us savagely,
Christen us carrion, call us dirt.
The fields grow chillier in dumb anguish
As telegraph poles transfix the earth.

The devil's neck has wiry muscles,
It easily bears ·the iron road.
So what? We've had our noses busted
Before and we have reeled from blows.

Though for the heart it's excruciating,
This is а song of wild-beast rights!...
…Hunters enjoy t o g o wolf-chasing
Just like this, as the noose draws tight.

The wild beast crouches… In deep ambush
Somebody а trigger will press…
А sudden leap... The two-legged enemy
ls savaged as fierce fangs rip his chest.

Hail, beast! My love for you is unbounded.
Not in vain you leap at the knife.
I, like you, on all sides hounded,
Among iron enemies go through life.

I, like you, am ever in readiness.
Hearing the horn sound my defeat,
I still go for the blood of my enemies
With а final, fatal leap.

Though in the field of snow I tumble
And а deep grave-hole in it bore...
Yet а song to avenge my destruction
Will be sung on that other shore.

Translated by Peter Tempest