| Deutsch and Yarmolinsky, comps. Modern Russian Poetry. 1921. | | | | Spring Apple-Tree | | By Igor Severyanin (Pseud. of Igor Lotarev) |
| | Aquarelle
AN APPLE-TREE in Spring shakes me,—to see it grow, | |
| Its branches whitely weighted with unmelting snow. | |
| So might a hunch-backed girl stand, beautiful and dumb, | |
| As trembling, the tree stands, and strikes my genius numb…. | |
| It looks into the wide, pale shallows, mirror-clear, | 5 |
| Seeking to shed the dews that stain it like a tear; | |
| And stilled with horror, groans like a rude, rusty cart, | |
| Seeing the dismal hunch mocked by the pool’s bright art. | |
| When steely sleep alights upon the silent lake | |
| For the bent apple-tree, as for a sick girl’s sake, | 10 |
| I come to offer tenderness the boughs would miss, | |
| I press upon the petal-perfumed tree a kiss. | |
| Then trustingly, with tears, the tree confides her care | |
| To me, and brushes with a touch my back-blown hair. | |
| Her boughs encircle me, her little twigs enlace, | 15 |
| And I lift up my lips to kiss her flowering face. | | | | |
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