I know the truth

Marina Tsvetayeva

translated from Russian by Elaine Feinstein

I know the truth - give up all other truths!

No need for people anywhere on earth to struggle.

Look - it is evening, look, it is nearly night:

what do you speak of, poets, lovers, generals?

The wind is level now, the earth is wet with dew,

the storm of stars in the sky will turn to quiet.

And soon all of us will sleep under the earth, we

who never let each other sleep above it.     

1915