| Deutsch and Yarmolinsky, comps. Modern Russian Poetry. 1921. | | | | Inevitability | | By Valery Brusov (b. 1873) |
| | | IF you kept faith, or not, does it avail? | |
| If I was faithful or unfaithful to you? | |
| Our eyes that would look elsewhere flinch and fail, | |
| Yet not my will has power to undo you. | |
| Once more I tremble, so once more you pale, | 5 |
| As the forebodings of old pain break through you. | |
| The moments pour with noise of torrents streaming: | |
| Above us passion’s lifted blade is gleaming. | |
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| Whoever made us, lips and lit eyes drinking | |
| Of lips and eyes, be it or God or Fate, | 10 |
| Is it not one? Within the circle shrinking | |
| We stand to hear the spell reverberate! | |
| We bend with happiness and fear,—and sinking, | |
| We fall: two anchors on the sea-floor grate. | |
| Fancy, nor chance, nor passion overpowers | 15 |
| Us, whom the ineluctable devours. | | | | |
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