Twelve months I waited for the name to ring

The one my heart forever chose to sing.

Behold, the Sun dimmed down on Summer day

And heralded the sad news as I prayed

With candle in my hand for poet’s life.

Alas, he ended his eternal strife

And left the em’rald pastures of this world

To sit with Lord in his celestial court.

My heart is filled with deep and nagging pain,

My eyes with tears fill time and again,

But futile are my efforts to drain out

The vessel filled with grief, without doubt.

Oh, gentle poet, how I wish you knew

The depth of love I nursed inside for you!

And how I cherished more than earthly things

Your words that glow like prized pearls on strings

As if I knew ahead that your Earth years

Were shorter than my days, all filled with tears.

I used to fill with pride when, basking in your fame,

Sometimes you were so kind to say my name.

Immortal poets I have known before

Who wrote volumes of undying lore,

But never in my life I met the one

In flesh and blood, and now he is gone!

The stormy clouds march along the sky

They whisper: there’s no death, don’t cry!

God loved the poet (mentioned not in vain) -

He mercifully rid him of his pain.

God loved the poet? Maybe loved too much.

Endowed the man with talent hard to touch.

A talent given only from above

To single mortals who deserve His love.

But even if he failed to earn his name,

I would have loved him all the very same.

The poet’s soul ascended to the sky

And from this day on, as we mourn and cry,

God has acquired a new and trusted friend

Who’ll keep him company for centuries on end.

God’s gain, my loss, but poets never die,

They are committed to eternal time,

God gives them wounded hearts to bleed destined

So verse in blood forever is inscribed.

That’s why in light of day and dark of night

The poets scream with pain and shake with fright

When they extract the words from scars that bleed

On their hearts, for all of us to heed.

Hey, there, dazzling stars exploding with delight!

Move over for the Earth’s biggest star,

The one that’s shadowed all its peers on sky

For all of us eternally to shine!

By Liana Margiva

Translated from Russian by Anatol Kardiukov