So many times the Spring did bloom

And Summer yielded to Autumn’s doom

Since I enjoyed my careless youth,

Reveled in pleasures most uncouth.

The dark of nights, like good old wine

Went to my head, it was divine

When love was playing hide-and-seek

With me on banks of bubbling creek.

I wish I knew in days of youth

That my soul love will never sooth.

I wouldn’t have spend my precious time

On useless angst, on feckless rhymes.

If one could live without love,

Why seek this ever fleeing dove?

Why torture one’s immortal soul

And heart, to no end at all?

I wish I knew that grief and lies

In time inhabit people’s eyes,

I would have kept, and that’s the truth,

In them the happiness of youth.

I wish I knew the Spring’s sweet air

So filled with love, would disappear.

I wouldn’t have stayed, I’d flap my wings

And vanish in that air of Spring.

If I knew then that sleepless nights

Would lose their charm, becoming trite;

Infused with unrequited passion

They’d quickly go out of fashion,

I’d linger in the past, attuned

To bright light of the Harvest Moon.

And listened to the whispered fall

Of yellow leaves amidst the Fall.

If I knew then, that wind will loose its thrill

(When youth is gone, the heart’s too cold to chill)

I’d let it touch my face from dusk to dawn

To dry the tears spilled by heart that mourned.

I wish I knew the rain would never stop

Once thoughts of love I would forever drop,

I’d never share my tears with the rain

Aware that my anguish was in vain.

If I knew then: the flame would stop to burn

In eyes that ached for passion to return,

The dreams would die, the pain would fill the soul,

Would I aspire for this sorry goal?

Could I have known after I was born

That silent tongue of flowers I would learn?

The buds and leaves would share their dreams

Caressed by sun on banks of peaceful streams.

And later, with the Autumn’s chills and rains

When no leaf on bare tree remains,

I’d share their anguish, their pain,

And weep for their destiny again.

The bright palette of birds, the bird of every kind

Love will return, they’ll fully pay in kind

To one who truly cared for them all

And was a stranger at love’s pompous ball.

A deer’s forlorn gaze forever will remind

Of time when my eyes truly spoke the mind,

And screamed from prangs of agonizing pain:

I love you so much, don’t go away!

Those eyes that once were fire and sparks

Look dismally at trees that sprawl in gloomy dark,

Beholding yellow leaves that slowly fall,

Predicting no future for us all.

The grim reminder of the Summer’s debt,

Not for a second letting us forget

The brevity of life that seemed to have no end

In youth that run out like hourglass sand.

By Liana Margiva

Translated from Russian by Anatol Kardiukov