Valery Bryusov

When curtains of house fall down,
And the lamps' mitigating light
Makes peaceful all shadows around,
I hear the song of delight.

I needn't the astonishing glow,
The beauty and great of the sky.
A curtain, fall down, fall low!
The world, go out and fly!

I have here my books -- lines and letters,
And here my meter plays...
And I know the sweet of the fetters
In deeps of the prisons-caves!


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, September, 2000