Marina Tsvetaeva

Every verse is a child of love,
A destitute bastard slip,
A firstling -- the winds above --
Left by the road asleep.
Heart has a gulf, and a bridge,
Heart has a bless, and a grief.
Who is his father? A liege?
Maybe a liege, or a thief.


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, April 1994,
Edited by Dmitry Karshtedt, July 1996.