Hello, Boris! Six in the morning, with everything blowing and howling. I just ran to the well between rows of trees (two opposite pleasures: an empty pail, a full pail) and I greeted you with my whole body, and with the wind in my face. Back at the house (now with a full one -- the second in the parentheses), everyone was still asleep. I stopped and lifted my head to see you. Thus I live with you, morning and evening, getting up in you, lying down in you.
-- Marina Tsvetayeva, Letter to Boris Pasternak (26 May 1926), from Letters: Summer 1926
Translated by Margaret Wettlin
We are deep in a dark wood.
I warm you with my blood.
Listen to me as I lean against you!
Surely this is far more true
Than poetry.-- Marina Tsvetayeva, from "Poem of the End"
Translated by Paul Schmidt
