“I Write”

V. ZVYAGINTSEVA

I write as I breathe.
I can’t write as others want.
I hasten to share
That ecstasy, rapture,
That pain of mine.
Probably I am not right
Thus before all.
Words are not necessary
About deeds outstripping time!
Who am I all-myself?
I live in this vast world
Not alone, not the two of us,
Hiding in secluded corner.
It’s not such a time
To live only in one’s own soul,
It is necessary
To dip the tip of my pen
In the large sea of life.
But nevertheless friends
(Perhaps because of this sin)
Take leave of me,
And indeed, I’m also a particle
Of this age
Of course, I sin
That’s the fate of man!
I write as I breathe,
But I breathe.
The air of the age.

–Translated from Russian by G. K. G. Joshi