Perched on a sprawling tree branch

Decorated with beautiful blossom

Cute little red bird

Is giving me sad little look.

Why are you looking at me so sadly

When Spring is so awesome,

What are you hiding

In your gaze’s melancholy nook?

You reckon, perhaps,

That Spring never bloomed in my garden,

Just like the branch

Upon which you alighted today.

You reckon my soul never soared,

Defiant and ardent

On a pair of beautiful wings,

Even better than yours.

It soared above in the sky

Like some avian goddess

It plunged from the heights

Into ocean’s abyss, I do swear.

The waves lifted it back to heavens,

Fulfilling the promise,

Their troubles abandoned,

They felt they belonged in the air.

Its travels completed,

The soul would return to its mistress

From the corners of Earth

That was known to none of the birds,

Back to its gilded cage,

On its own quickly learning the distress

Of someone who’s been caged,

Then released, then, again, was interned.

It was yearning for freedom

That knows no bounds for a flier,

It was flying away

And returning back home every time

On the wings of the bird

With the color of fire

Singing hymns to the freedom

In heavenly climb.

Clouds were beckoning –

My soul would pay them a visit

Wrap itself in the coat

That’s softer than feathers and furs,

Looking up in the skies,

Down on rivers so quaint and exquisit

Splashing waters abundant

That never could fit in their berths.

Other rivers - dried out,

Not a tear to cry in the season,

For the life that was given

To many a creature and plant,

Scorched and crippled they lie

Not for any good reason…

In the midsummer drought

The tears are scant.

So, behold, little bird,

I completed my share of flying

Soaring high in the sky,

With my feet planted solid on Earth.

While my heart was in cage

Suffocating and dying,

My free soul was enjoying

Sweet Liberty’s mirth.

My heart was lamenting

Captivity’s anguish

That prevented it from

Taking off with the soul.

Why’d you look in my eyes,

While In misery I languish,

What’s the message they give

If they give one at all?

Heart commanded the eyes

Not to peep out a sound,

Not divulge to a soul

They were yearning for love,

Back in time when red bird

Wasn’t even around,

Back in time when the sky

Was so clear above.

Now that you are here,

An accomplished globetrotter,

Having traveled the planet

Crosswise and beyond,

I am still by myself

Solitude’s only daughter,

Still alone as before

When you weren’t around!

By Liana Margiva

Translated from Russian by Anatol Kardiukov