Ты запрокидываешь голову… [Ty zaprokidyvayeshʹ golovu…] [English translation]

You laugh and throw your head back

When brag and make up fibs

How fun is this companion

That February brings

Pockets tinkling with coins

Steam exhaled in the wind

We look like serious strangers

But lightly pass the streets

“Whose careful hands

have touched your lashes, beauty?

When, how, by whom, how much

your lips been kissed?”

I do not ask all that. The spirit

has overcome daydreams.

The holly ten-year-old boy

in you to me appeals

Let’s stop and watch the river

That rinses lanterns’ beads.

I'll walk you to a square

That used to see young kings

And you, whistle your boyish pain

And clutch your heart in fist.

My cold, my frantic, free one

Forgive me this

• Artist:Marina Tsvetayeva