MARINA TSVETAEVA
(1892-1941)
Russian poet
Published first collection of poems, Evening Album, at age 18.
Life coincided with the Russian Revolution
Married in 1912; had two daughters and one son
Emigrated to Paris in 1912 with family where they lived in poverty.
Corresponded with Rainier Maria Rilke and Boris Pasternak.
Returned to Russia in 1939
Died by suicide in 1941
from “An Attempt at Jealousy”
Translated By Ilya Kaminsky
How is your life with that other one?
Simpler, is it? A stroke of the oars
and a long coastline—
and the memory of me
is soon a drifting island
(not in the ocean—in the sky!)
Souls—you will be sisters—
sisters, not lovers.
How is your life with an ordinary
woman? without the god inside her?
The queen supplanted—
How do you breathe now?
Flinch, waking up?
What do you do, poor man?
“Hysterics and interruptions—
enough! I’ll rent my own house!”
How is your life with that other,
you, my own.
Is the breakfast delicious?
(If you get sick, don’t blame me!)
How is it, living with a postcard?
You who stood on Sinai.
How’s your life with a tourist
on Earth? Her rib (do you love her?)
is it to your liking?
How’s life? Do you cough?
Do you hum to drown out the mice in your mind?
How do you live with cheap goods: is the market rising?
How’s kissing plaster-dust?
Are you bored with her new body?
How’s it going, with an earthly woman,
with no sixth sense?
Are you happy?
No? In a shallow pit—how is your life,
my beloved? Hard as mine
with another man?
1924
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