| Deutsch and Yarmolinsky, comps. Modern Russian Poetry. 1921. | | | | The Tryst | By Valery Brusov (b. 1873)
(Trans. Avrahm Yarmolinsky) |
| | | IN the land of Ra the flaming, by the shores of Nile’s slow waters, where the roofs of Thebes were seen, | |
| In the days of yore you loved me, as dark Isis loved Osiris, sister, friend and worshiped queen! | |
| And the pyramid its shadow on our evening trysts would lean. | |
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| Oh, the mystery remember of our meeting in the temple, in the aisle of granite, dim and straight, | |
| And the hour when, lights extinguished, and the sacred dances broken,—each to each was sudden mate; | 5 |
| Our caresses, burning whispers, ardors that we could not sate. | |
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| In the splendor of the ball-room, clinging to me, white and tender,—through Time’s curtain rift in twain, | |
| Did your ear not catch the anthems, mingling with the crash of cymbals, and the people’s answering refrain? | |
| Did you not repeat in rapture that our love awoke again? | |
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| Once before, we knew existence, this our bliss is a remembrance, and our love—a memory; | 10 |
| Casting off its ancient ashes, flames again our hungry passion, flames and kindles you and me,— | |
| As of old, by Nile’s slow waters, in the land beyond the sea. | | | | |
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