To Her by Osip Mandelshtam

Mistress of guilty glances, no smile,

Bearer keeper of slender shoulders!

Man’s dangerous temper is quelled,

The drowned speech falls silent whisper.

Sleepy fishes  swim by, fins glowing red,                                                                                                                                  The gills are flaring: here, take them!                                                                                                                                         Mouth gasping soundlessly—them fed,                                                                                                                                    With the half-loaf of your flesh of human.

We are  neither a red fish golden,

Ours is a sweetheart sisterly way:

Slender ribs within a warm body,

And the futile, moist gleam of eyes.

A dangerous path marked by poppy brows.

Why do I love—like a Janissary trips

This tiny, fleetingly crimson, which I know,

This distinctly pitiful crescent of lips?..

Do not be angry, dear Turkish mai beauty

I shall let myself be sewn into a sack with you;

Swallowing your dark words healthy,

I shall drink the waters of doom for sake.of you.

You, Virgin Maria, are a help to the perishing;

One must forestall death—by falling asleep.

I stand at the unyielding threshold, thinkingu

Go—leave—yet stay a while longer acheave…