Valery Bryusov
Hymn to Aphrodite

For the duration of these moments so strange,
And for your half open eyes with that vague hint,
For moisture lips, pressing mine as trying to engage,
For all that here, at a slow fire burnt
In one beat of heart with the heart merged,
That equal sigh bound the couple dreamed, —
        Oh, take my verse,
        You, Aphrodite!

For in the days when all the fields becoming grey
Obediently waiting for the cold winds of the Borey,-
Your sunray sword, picked up just over me,
And raining in my garden light and scorching heat,
That green grass by the Acvilon entwined,
And all the flowers and songs bathed all in it, —
        Oh, take my verse,
        You, Aphrodite!

For all that is and can’t be not to happen,
That all my dreams and they will soon be over,
What would I see in an hour of us being apart,
How we could brake the ring of our hot hands,
That secretly in the passion of bile poison hidden
That brings into the Hell the lovers slaves — of it, —
        Oh, take my verse,
        You, Aphrodite!

Translated by Galina Devyatkina