Don’t look at me from awesome height
The clouds far above
You won’t seduce me with your might,
With beauty that I love.

Don’t beckon me to join you there
Where birds and winds do fly
I’ll stay on Earth and I won’t leave
For freedom of the sky.

I’ll stay on Earth where I knew pain
Where short was happiness,
But that I never will exchange
For your celestial dress.

The Earth is pretty any day,
But if I were to pick
I would, of course, prefer to stay
In colorful Spring’s flick.

When flowers bloom and flocks of birds
That fly from far away
Sing their odes to Mother Earth
And praise the dawning day.

Don’t look at me from midday sky,
The clouds lost in dreams.
Don’t promise bliss and paradise,
I don’t know what it means.

I know the hell of solitude
Which was my normal state,
Don’t promise peace in endless sky
I knew no peaceful fate.

I dreamed to wrestle captive love
From heavy iron chains
That fate had forged in hell’s hot stove,
But my fight was in vain.

Don’t look at me from midnight skies
The clouds that veil the Moon,
I had a short and wretched life
And death can’t come too soon.

The golden dawn with me can’t part
‘Cause any given morning
For it I waited in my yard
And blessed each sacred dawning.

Don’t hint that our rendezvous
Is closer with every hour,
I love this Earth, I won’t give up
And you have no power

To substitute all sleepless nights
I spent in her embrace
By mindless ogling of the Earth
From cool and lifeless space.

Don’t warn me that the life is gone,
My youth is fresh in mind.
I knew by love I would be found
And fate would soon be kind.

I knew the eyes will shine with bliss
And not a flash too soon,
I will be held to lover’s heart
Like tender flower’s bloom.

There wasn’t a slightest rationale
To deprave me of love,
My soul was pure and it shined
Just like the clouds above.

But no one’s eyes did flash with bliss,
Indifference joined the hate
To get me back for my caprice
To dream of love as fate.

Oh, no, the soul does not get old,
Mine withered like a rose
Squished by the heavy stone of life:
The final page is closed.

Don’t look at me from awesome height
The clouds up in space,
The promise of eternal life
I never will embrace.


Eternal suffering is not
Perceived as biggest gain.
Leave me on Earth a little spot
Where Earth will drain my pain.

Oh, clouds, pray, don’t go away,
Don’t leave the vacant sky,
Lie to my heart that you will wait
For me till day I die.

Speak to my heart and soothe its pain
Keep it in joy enshrined,
And chase its solitude away
Amongst the vocal crowds!

By Liana Margiva

Translated from Russian by Anatol Kardiukov