LETTER TO LERMONTOV

You are distant, alone, and far on the horizon,

obscured, almost nurtured, by the ocean's fog.

Seeking and searching, you are always a stranger:

What did leaving me, losing me, cost?

I would swim with one foot on the sand of the dry land;

I would wait for you, never explore.

But you are the waves, and the wind and its whistle,

and the storm you embrace far from shore.

My few timid ships all cling to the shoreline

too frightened to leave what they know.

You laugh and command them: There is another shore;

the second appears when the first is gone.

So sing, my dear love, of the wide morning's gold sky,

and the call of the azure strand,

and the gull and the salt and the mast that pitches,

and the lure of a foreign land.

I will be your welcome, your country forever;

I'll receive, then release you (adieu).

I will be your native and nurturing homeland

and wait to be called home by you.

For National Translation Month (NTM), a newly revised Pushkin

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin (June 6, 1799 – February 10, 1837)

I loved you once, and this love still, it may be,
Is not extinguished fully in my soul;
But let’s no longer have this love dismay you:
To trouble you is not my wish at all.
I loved you once quite wordlessly, without hope,
Tortured shyness, jealous rage I bore.
I loved you once so gently and sincerely:
God grant another love you thus once more

Tr. L. Shmailo

Я вас любил: любовь еще, быть может,
В душе моей угасла не совсем;
Но пусть она вас больше не тревожит;
Я не хочу печалить вас ничем.
Я вас любил безмолвно, безнадежно,
То робостью, то ревностью томим;
Я вас любил так искренно, так нежно,
Как дай вам бог любимой быть другим.