A Farewell To Mariengof

There's crazy happiness in friendship. And the convulsion of wild passions - The fire melts the body down As if it were a stearine candle. Oh my beloved! give me your hands - I'm not used to doing it any other way - I want to wash them at this time of parting With the yellow foam of my hair. Ah, Tolya, Tolya, is it you, is it you, For one more moment, one more time - The circles of unmoving eyes Have grown still again like milk. Farewell, farewell. In the moonlit fires Will I wait until the joyful day? Of all the praised and all the young You were the very best for me. At a certain time, in a certain year Perhaps we shall meet yet again... I am frightened-for the soul passes Away, just like our youth and love. Another man will extinguish me inside you. Isn't this why - in unison to the speeches - My ears, which are also sobbing Now touch the shoulders, like the oars touch water? Farewell, farewell. In the moonlit fires I will not see the joyful day, But still of all the tender and all the young You were the very best for me.