Aleksandr Blok

Do you remember? In the harbor passive,
Just where green water calmly sleeps,
Set in the column, strong and massive,
Appeared navy's silent ships.

All four were gray. And many questions
Were shortly overwhelming us,
And sailors, very tanned and fashioned,
To shore in solemn silence passed.

The world became luring and broad,
But once, ships started to depart:
The four of them on their road
Dug in the ocean and night.

The sea obtained the former glow,
The lone beacon sadly twinkled
When on the mast, becoming low,
The last of signals lost the link.

Oh, how little we wait from living -
We are the children - I and you,
You see, the heart is happy, seeing
The smallest part of all that new.

A pocket knife brought you a treasure -
The speck of dust from a far land --
And world again becomes a stranger
That by the colored cloud veiled.

Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, January, 1995 - March, 2002