Deutsch and Yarmolinsky, comps. Modern Russian Poetry. 1921.
When Mountain-ashAlexander Blok (18801921)
W
Its leafage wet and stained with rust,
When through my palm the nail that deadens
By bony hands is shrewdly thrust,
As on the wet gray height I toss,
While my austere-faced country sees me
Where I am swinging on the cross,
My staring eyes, with tears grown stiff,
Shall see on the broad river rising
Christ moving toward me in a skiff.
And the same rags from him will trail,
His garment piteously hiding
The palm pierced with the final nail.
The cross tugs at my failing might.
Thy skiff—will it achieve these beaches,
And land here at my cruciate height?