| Deutsch and Yarmolinsky, comps. Modern Russian Poetry. 1921. | | | | A Song | | By Ivan Bunin (b. 1870) |
| | | I’M a plain girl, whose hands are stained with earth. | |
| He is a fisherman—he’s gay and keen. | |
| The far white sail is drowning in the firth. | |
| Many the seas and rivers he has seen. | |
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| The women of the Bosphorus, they say, | 5 |
| Are good-looking … and I—I’m lean and black. | |
| The white sail drowns far out beyond the bay. | |
| It may be that he never will come back. | |
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| I shall wait on in good and evil weather. | |
| If vainly, take my wage, go to the sea | 10 |
| And cast the ring and hope away together. | |
| And my black braid will serve to strangle me. | | | | |
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