Nikolay Grebnev

A morn or an evening, a sun or a night –
A fisherman black or a fisherman white.
The world’s like a sea, and it seems oft to me
That we, like some fish, swim in deeps of a sea. 
In worlds, like in seas, fishermen do not sleep, 
Preparing their nets and their hooks for a deep.
With a hook of a day or a net of a night,
The fisherman-time will draw me outside.


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, June, 2001