Saved!

Two of my favourite poems of all time - presented here for posterity. Esenin's 'Kiss' is available in one or two English translations, and while the one I first spied years ago is lost, this one comes pretty close.


'Kiss' by Sergei Esenin

Today I asked the man who changes
Tumans for rubles, one for two,
How I should say to the fair Lala
In Persian softly: "I love you".

Today I asked the money-changer,
In tones as soft as Lake Van`s bliss,
How I should make to the fair Lala
Sweet references to "kiss".

I further asked the money - changer,
Trying my shyness to confine,
How I should say to the fair Lala
The simple phrase that she is "mine".

And he replied to me thus briefly:
Love can't be told in any phrase,
For love one can but sigh in secret,
While loving eyes, like gemstones, blaze.

A kiss has no name you can utter,
On tombs you don't inscribe a kiss.
Like roses red do kisses flutter,
Their petals melting on the lips.

From love no pledge can be demanded,
Both joy and woe came in its trail.
That "you are mine" can whisper only
Hands that have removed the veil.


and now Solveig von Schoultz's 'The Lover', which I have in a precious book, but given here for the hell of it.


'The Lover' by Solveig von Schoultz

My eyes want to kiss your face.
I have no power over my eyes.
They just want to kiss your face.
I flow towards you out of my eyes,
a fine heat trembles round your shoulders,
it slowly dissolves your contours
and I am there with you, your mouth
and everywhere around you --
I have no power over my eyes.

I sit with my hands in my lap,
I shan't touch you and I'll never speak.
But my eyes kiss your face,
I rise out of myself and no-one can stop me,
I flow out and I'm invisible,
I cannot stop this unfathomable flowing,
this dazzle that knows neither end nor beginning --
but when at last you turn your eyes towards me,
your unaware, questioning, stranger's eyes,
I sink myself back into my hands
and take up my place again under my eyelids.


Right...back to playing with myself.