I've Never Seen Women So Pretty

To my sister Shura

I've never seen women so pretty, But, I must say, at heart I secrete Not a bad but a good-natured envy That my own young days you repeat. My cornflower manifest - you are, And you I shall love evermore. How is our old cow there now doing, Munching its sorrow of straw? I like it when you start singing. My heart with a child's sleep soothe! Is our rowan no longer glittering By the window, shedding its fruit? What does mother sing now to her spinning? The village for good I have left. I know this: a crimson blizzard Dead leaves to the porch has swept. I know that the dog we abandoned Now plaintively howls at the gate - There's nobody there now to fondle him, He mourns the sad turn of his fate. But still there can be no returning, And that's why in such a short span Life's given me love, joy, sad yearning... And your pretty scarf from Ryazan.