Bella Akhmadulina

Rain flogs my face and collar-bones,
a thunderstorm roars over musts.
You thrust upon my flesh and soul,
like tempests upon ships do thrust.

I do not want, at all, to know,
what will befall to me the next – 
would I be smashed against my woe,
or thrown into happiness.

In awe and gaiety elated, 
like a ship, that’s going tempests through, 
I am not sorry that I’ve met you,
and not afraid to love you, too.


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, April, 2001