Belated meeting
1
In the bustle of idle, tangled years
A meeting in youth never came to be.
It was hard to find your trace,
To know that in this mercenary world remained
That one, kindred in soul.
Amidst the whirl of office romances
Nights and days danced in a ring,
Forming a circle of self-deceptions.
Mistress of unbridled thoughts,
Heir to first daring fantasies,
Which conquered the youth's mind,
You arose as a vision from childhood.
Long I did not see you in my dreams.
Mocking, jeering at me,
Fate played a cruel joke,
Presenting the dream-maiden as living.
The fatal mistake is clear:
Our time has gone, irrevocably.
You have long been betrothed.
An error in the book of fate. Perversely.
2
In the depths of your eyes — the softest comfort,
They give off tenderness, warmth.
But not to me. A fate, evil, unenviable,
Prepared for us an insulting lot:
Where the desired word — "we" — is absent,
Relationships are given on loan,
Partings — the antechamber of hell,
And love — a measure of punishment, a measure of reward.
Memory will torment itself more fiercely,
Will carry the whirlwind of drunken days,
At work and in the stuffy tavern,
I will remember — in the fickle world
You are constantly present.
The pain will pass. Bitterness will destroy dreams,
The beckoning glances will burn out,
Life will put on shabby attire,
Will crawl meticulously forward.
Indifference will come in its turn.
Years-barren flowers will flicker by,
The plots of loneliness-harpies