From the cycle “Magdalene”, and From the cycle “Trees”

Abstract

From the cycle “Magdalene”, and From the cycle “Trees” Marina Tsvetaeva (bio) Translated by Marina Pavlova (bio) 3 I won’t ask about your past, my dearest,Why should I—when blessed like this?Barefoot I am no more—receivingTorrents of your hair—And tears. I won’t ask about the price of attarsWhich you generously pour.I came naked, and your body clad meWave-like—yet as fencefulAs a wall. I will touch your naked body softly,Softer than the quietest rustle.I was strict. You clung to me and taught meTenderness, which bent me just like grass. In your hair let me sweetly nestle,Swaddle me without a swathe.—Gentle myrrhophore, your myrrh is wasted!You washed me all overLike a wave. 1923 [End Page 190] From the cycle “Trees” 2 My soul is fed up to the throatWith wrongs and fiendish hurt,I swear to give up the revoltAgainst the Demon’s hordes— Not as they were in books of old—Fiery cataracts—Against the everyday assaultsOf people’s callousness— I come to you, my forest trees—Escape from market roars!By following your skyward sweepsMy heart turns rapturous! An oak in God-defying battle,All root and foliage!Willows, clairvoyant, heaving sighs,And birches, virginal! An elm—enraged Abishalom,Strappadoed bristlinessOf pines—and you, my fervid psalm—My rowan bitterness . . . To you, into quicksilver clouds—Falling and scattering!So I can finally stretch my armsWithout the manuscripts! [End Page 191] My hands receive the splashing green—In lively cadences . . .My bareheaded, humble trees,My ever-tremulous . . . 1922 [End Page 192] Marina Tsvetaeva Marina Tsvetaeva (1892–1941) is often considered one of the greatest poets in twentieth-century Russian literature. Her legacy includes several collections of lyric poetry and long poems, the most celebrated of which are “Poem of the Mountain” (1926) and “Poem of the End” (1926); verse dramas; translations of Rilke, Goethe, Baudelaire, and other European poets; literary criticism; and autobiographical prose. Broadly described as modernist, her work was not part of any literary movement of the time. Tsvetaeva is known as a technical virtuoso, whose poems combine musicality with highly distinctive elliptical syntax and hectic rhythm. Marina Pavlova Marina Pavlova is a native speaker of Russian who holds a Cand. Sc. (PhD) in American Literature from Ivanovo State University. Her awards for translation include the Special Prize for the Best Realization of Intercultural Communication in a Translator’s Work in the 2007 Sensum de Sensu competition (St. Petersburg, Russia). She lives in Russia and is currently working on a book-length collection of Marina Tsvetaeva’s poems translated into English. Copyright © 2022 Middlebury College