My Dreams (Мои мечты), Sergei Yesenin

Yesenin with his sisters in 1912

Yesenin wrote this when he was 16 or 17. Life in a peasant hut outside Ryazan was beginning to pale.

On distant place my dreams are set
Where all can hear the cries and sobbing,
To share in alien sorrow’s net
And anguished grieving’s painful throbbing.

For there, I’m sure that I can find
Delight in life and exaltation,
And there, escaping fortune’s bind,
I’ll cast about for inspiration.

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Мои мечты стремятся вдаль,
Где слышны вопли и рыданья,
Чужую разделить печаль
И муки тяжкого страданья.

Я там могу найти себе
Отраду в жизни, упоенье,
И там, наперекор судьбе,
Искать я буду вдохновенья.

Translation by Rupert Moreton