Deutsch and Yarmolinsky, comps. Modern Russian Poetry. 1921.
The Curse of LoveDmitry Merezhkovsky (b. 1865)
W
The bonds of love I would remove.
Oh, to be loosed from their enchaining!
Oh, freedom, only not to love!
Crawls through a mist of dust and blood.
From dust, great God, my spirit purging,
Oh, spare me from love’s bitter flood!
I pray to God, I cry in vain,
More weary, by all hope forsaken;
Resistless love grows great again.
We live as slaves, by life consumed;
We perish, tortured, bound and driven,
Promised to death, and to love—doomed.