When the Great Flood waters had subsided, Returned to their boundaries below, From the foam that land and sea divided Emerged mysteriously - Love! And up into the air softly glided, And in the airy element dissolved. The dreamers (yes, they still exist) Inhale insatiably this mist, Unheeding of rewards they might be reaping. They breathe and do not even think, Yet suddenly they fall in sync, With similar uneven breathing. For lovers I will lay down fields and groves. Let them dream and sing their one motif. I can breathe and therefore I love. I can love and therefore I live. There will be wanderings and tribulations. The Land of Love has no boundaries. Knights errant enter it in veneration. She will be testing their loyalties: Demanding distances and separations, Depriving them of rest, and sleep, and peace. But they can’t be diverted from their way. They know the price. They have agreed to pay - With their very lives in this endeavor! Protecting, letting nothing shred The magical translucent thread That has connected them forever! For lovers I will lay down fields and groves. Let them sing their beautiful motif! I can breathe and therefore I love. I can love and therefore I live. All those who in love forever drowned, You cannot reach them in their world serene. Corrosive words and slanders run unbound. They feast on blood, and they’re never clean. But let us lower candles to the ground For those who perished from this love unseen. Their souls will roam in flowers of joy, In harmony their voices shall be joined, Eternity in every inhalation! They’ll greet each other with the faintest smile Upon the bridges, narrow and fragile, Upon the brittle crossroads of creation! The chosen few! The tempest in their blood Knocked them down and from the dead revived! For, by heaven, if you haven’t loved, Then you haven’t breathed and haven’t been alive!
© Vadim Astrakhan. Translation, 2012
© Vadim Astrakhan. Performance, 2012