russian double.

as for saying goodbye, we don't know how,

shoulder to shoulder we keep walking.

it's getting darker and darker now,

you are pensive and i'm not talking.

we enter a church - inside they believe

in funerals, christenings, weddings too,

without looking at each other we leave...

why is everything different between you and me?

or else we sit in trampled snow

in a cemetery and begin to sigh,

you take a stick and draw the chateau,

where we'll always be, just you and i.

anna akhmatova

(tr. lyn coffin)

i'm glad your sickness is not caused by me.

mine is not caused by you. i'm glad to know

the heavy earth will never flow away

from us, beneath our feet, and so

we can relax together, and not watch

our words. when our sleeves touch

we shall not drown in waves of rising blush.

i'm glad to see you calmly now embrace

another girl in front of me, without

any wish to cause me pain, as you

don't burn if i kiss someone else.

i know you never use my tender name,

my tender spirit, day or night. and

no one in the silence of a church

will sing their Hallelujahs over us.

thank you for loving me like this,

for you feel love, although you do not know it.

thank you for the nights i've spent in quiet.

thank you for the walks under the moon

you've spared me and those sunset meetings unshared.

thank you. the sun will never bless our heads.

take my sad thanks for this: you do not cause

my sickness. and i don't cause yours.

marina tsvetaeva

(tr. elaine feinstein)

russian chicks understand.