Rita Boudard

Two Translations from Russian, published in The University of Texas at Dallas’s graduate student journal, Sojourn 16 (Spring/Summer 2003) 38 – 39.

[It pleases me, that you are not in love with me]
by Marina Tsvetaeva

It pleases me, that you are not in love with me
It pleases me, that I am not in love with you
That the stolid earth will never
Fall away from beneath our feet
It pleases me, that I am able to be funny,
Relaxed and not have to play with words
And that I don't have to blush from love
When our hands touch lightly.

It pleases me, that you may in my presence
Calmly embrace another,
That you do not curse me
To burn in the fires of hell
Because it is not you whom I kiss.

Glad that my name, my dearest one
You don't remember by day or night,
That none in the silence of the church
Will ever sing "alleluia" for us.

I am grateful with my heart and soul
That you, without knowing, love me so,
Grateful for my undisturbed evenings,
For our rare rendezvous at sundown,
For not walking together under the moon,
For the sun that does not shine above us,
For that you are in love, alas, not with me,
For that I am in love, but alas, not with you.

[Hands pressed together under dark veil...]
by Ana Akhmatova

Hands pressed together under dark veil...
Why are you so pale today?
I made him drink bitter sorrow
I made him drunk from it.

How could I forget? He left staggering,
Mouth distorted in pain
I ran down not touching the banister,
I ran after him to the front gate...

Out of breath, I cried: A joke
It was only a joke. If you leave- I shall die!
He laughed calmly and terribly
And said to me: Don't stand in the wind!