Marina Tsvetaeva

There is some hour – like a cast off load –
When our proud had been fully tamed.
The learning hour – on each life-long  road –
Is predestined and great.

The time, in which – our arms just had been thrown 
Down to the feet of shown by His hand –
The solder’s purple to the gray-fur gown
We’re changing on the seashore sand.

O, this great hour – like some loud trumpet,
Rising us up from free-will of a date!
O, this great hour, when like some ear, ripened,
We’re low-bending to our weight.

The ear has risen, and the hour – been crowned,
And now the ear is thirsty for the mill.
O, Law! O, Law! Yet in a womb of ground
My yoke by my own will.

The learning hour! But we see and know
Another light, - another bright sunrise.
Be ever blessed, now rising him below,
High time when lone will be each of us! 


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, November 10, 2005