MARINA TSVETAEVA: "I Had Been Leaving Coast of Misty Albion…"

"I Had Been Leaving Coast of Misty Albion…"


"I had been leaving coast of misty Albion.” -- Batjushkoff
"I had been leaving coast of misty Albion."
How divine they are - this sadness and this height!
I see the dingy waves fall down and rise on,
The dingy firmament... I know that all by hart.

I see the youth that leaned upon the high mast's rope, 
As beautiful as if he were by fairies born,
Wrapped in a coat. O! Let every virgin sob!
Cry, manhood! Cry, my misty Albion!

It's done! He is alone between these sky and flow!
There is a school for you who have been ‘gainst schools all!
And in a fatal heart, pierced with a star's arrow,
There enters in the king of fatal winds - Aeoll!


The roar of dingy waves is making the new ballad
Of wonderful his death from stars that libeled him on 
Cry, Youth! Cry, Love! Cry, World! O, sob my dear Aellad!
Cry, little Ada! Cry, my misty Albion! 


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, April, 1994