Mikhail Lermontov

I want to live; I crave for sadness -
Against my bliss and love, in truth;
They sank my mind in idle gladness
And made my brow very smooth.

It's time for high life's derogation
To blow away the hazy peace;
What is bard's life, void of desolation?
And what are void of tempests seas?

He wants a life that burns and wounds,
The life in which it's hard to be.
He buys the Holly Heaven's sounds,
He doesn't take his fame for free.


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, October, 2000
Edited by Dmitry Karshtedt, May, 2001