B.Akhmadulina, You Say... - Translation (Rus.) Poem by Lyudmila Purgina

By Bella Akhmadulina

You say: it's no need to weep.
Oh, may be so. So indeed
That's needless crying, but to swim
In so cold, cold stream.
To overcome the night dim water,
Which passes by the hand in swimming,
And thus to get a freedom portion
Of other bank of rapid river.
That's why I was so sweetly sighing
In the Siberia fair land,
Where the plants, being weak and trustful
Inclined to me so permanent.
How could I then express the image,
What was with me in such a clue?
The things in memory are glimmering
All tinted by the colour blue.
The Baikal's mystic vortex pool,
Where in slow water deep
The sparkling omul's drifting school
Shows their scales glittering.
And those houses and log-huts,
Which are well seen on Baikal's shores,
And wild lilies, bright coloured,
Which drooped their heads the moment over.
And sudden and amazing miracle:
The white-striped animals - chipmunks
Were staring at me so sensitive
With their pupils of the eyes.
So executed, luring even
Was deepness of the river light.
The crystal-clear Kizir-river
Has scorched with cold as a fire.
And overturned was then the slyness
Of my words, and of all your words,
Which were like medicine prescribing
For us with herbal healing brought.
I recollect anew the views
Within the earth and fields of rye,
And I could say that in this news
There was no any gram of lie.