“I Know the Only Truth…”

…from the quills of the dead white poets

Marina Tsvetaeva (1892 – 1941)

1915

I know the only truth! The others – cast aside!
There’s no need for the men of Earth to fight with others! 
Look, there’s the evening soon and soon it’ll be the night.
What you about, colonels, poets, lovers?

Now wind is near the soil and dew lay on the grass,
The starry blizzard soon will freeze into the heaven,
And soon under the earth will sleep each one of us –
By whom a sleep on it to others hadn’t been given.


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, October 8, 2004