Margarita Aliger

The deeply distinguishable Capulet, 
the highly admirable Montegue,
these children – Romeo and Juliet
made you famous the centuries through!
Not highness of birth, nor service fervent,  
nor ring of gold, nor swords’ sharp coldness,
nor famous ancestors, nor faithful servants, 
but love endowed with the utmost boldness.
You were distinguished by another exploit,
by another price, by another measure…
Or, maybe, by that obscure poet, 
who sang of this love under skies lost of azure.
Though they say, that that poet wasn’t found  
not among countries, nor among nations…
Yet, lived this boy and this girl on the ground, 
and passion, full of the fire and tensions!
And Romeo was so gentle and passionate,
and was Juliet such dissolved in love’s rapture,
that was not of any importance the question – 
whether Shakespeare existed in nature.
Oh, World, ever bloody, kind, gentle, outrages,
washed out by beams of the moon and by tears,
a poet doesn’t wait for the glory or treasure,
he simply isn’t able to hide his ideas.
Not asking next centuries for permanent glory,
not signing with mankind high bargains or low,
he just simply lives, and he lives like such story,
that couldn’t be another one filled with more woe.


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, April, 2001