Translation of Poem by MARINA TSVETAEVA, "Попытка ревности" "An Attempt at Jealousy"

Mikhail Vrubel, "Flying Demon" (fragment)

Marina Tsvetaeva

(1892-1941)

Попытка ревности

Как живется вам с другою,-
Проще ведь?- Удар весла!-
Линией береговою
Скоро ль память отошла

Обо мне, плавучем острове
(По небу - не по водам)!
Души, души!- быть вам сестрами,
Не любовницами - вам!

Как живется вам с простою
Женщиною? Без божеств?
Государыню с престола
Свергши (с оного сошед),

Как живется вам - хлопочется -
Ежится? Встается - как?
С пошлиной бессмертной пошлости
Как справляетесь, бедняк?

"Судорог да перебоев -
Хватит! Дом себе найму".
Как живется вам с любою -
Избранному моему!

Свойственнее и сьедобнее -
Снедь? Приестся - не пеняй...
Как живется вам с подобием -
Вам, поправшему Синай!

Как живется вам с чужою,
Здешнею? Ребром - люба?
Стыд Зевесовой вожжою
Не охлестывает лба?

Как живется вам - здоровится -
Можется? Поется - как?
С язвою бессмертной совести
Как справляетесь, бедняк?

Как живется вам с товаром
Рыночным? Оброк - крутой?
После мраморов Каррары
Как живется вам с трухой

Гипсовой? (Из глыбы высечен
Бог - и начисто разбит!)
Как живется вам с сто-тысячной -
Вам, познавшему Лилит!

Рыночною новизною
Сыты ли? К волшбам остыв,
Как живется вам с земною
Женщиною, без шестых

Чувств? Ну, за голову: счастливы?
Нет? В провале без глубин -
Как живется, милый? Тяжче ли,
Так же ли, как мне с другим? 

Nov. 19, 1924

An Attempt at Jealousy

How goest your life with another?

Any easier? One oar in the water, plink!

And off drifts the erstwhile once-lover.

Did all too soon the memory shrink

Of me, the island that sails astray

(Through sky and not through watery mass)?

Souls, souls! You’re to be siblings now, hey!

No more being lovers; that’s passed.

How goest your life with a lass who’s

Conventional? Deprived of the gods that you slew, 

You who dethroned your exemplary empress 

When you acted to abdicate you?

How goest your life, with a fidget and sway?  

With a shrinking flaccid? Standing tall? Just how?

How do you cope with the tax you pay

On the everyday triteness you live with, poor pal?

“Enough with convulsions, the jerkings around,

Your fits and your frenzies; I’m out!”

How goest your life with a gal who’s earthbound,

O you, whom I built strong, my lifelong redoubt?

Is the grub more dear to the bone,

More edible? No bellyaching, friend, if it palls on you…

How goest your life with a semblance alone,

You who once fondled Mt. Sinai’s soft dew?

How goest your life with an alien creed,

Pure pedestrian? I ask you point blank—is it “love”?

Does shame, mounted high on his chastening steed,

Not lash at your full-of-blame brow from above?

How goest your “relationship”? With a howdy, how do?

With a no can do? With a ho-hum song, just how?

How do you go about coping, poor you,

With a conscience in pangs, with a milkless milk cow?

How goest your life with the merchandise

From the flea market selloff? Price too steep for rust?

After the marble walls of Carrara, how’s the downsize,

Huh? How’s things with the wood rot and dust?

For God was hewn out of that stone by a comet,

Then smashed into crumples and sheen,

So how goest your life with quintessence of common,

You who once frolicked with Lilith the Queen?

Your newly bought marked-way-down toy of a thing,

Does she “meet your needs?” You who dispensed

With the magic, how goest your life without bling,

With a wench sorely lacking in sense of sixth sense?

Okay now. Tell me true: you happy?

No? In your ditch without depth and bereft of a plan,

How goes your life, my dear? 

Harder maybe, more sappy?

Or just the same way as goes my life

With a mundane and commonplace man?

Literary Translation/Imitation by U.R. Bowie

Translator’s Notes

Mount Sinai—a holy mountain in all three great monotheistic religions. Mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus and other books of the bible, Sinai is the mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments.

Carrara—a city in Tuscany, Italy. Its marble quarries are world-renowned for the white or blue-gray marble quarried there.

Lilith—in Jewish folklore Lilith is the wife of Adam, created from the same clay as he was (in contrast to Eve, who was created from Adam’s rib). In one thirteenth-century legend Lilith left Adam, refusing to be subservient to him; she coupled with the archangel Samael and did not return to the Garden of Eden. In Jewish mythology Lilith is often seen as a dangerous demon of the night, sexually wanton, who comes in darkness to steal babies.

This poem is apparently based on Tsvetaeva’s break-up with Konstantin Rodzevich, an officer of the White Guard whom she met in emigration. She was married to Sergei Efron at the time; he apparently knew of this short-lived affair but did not object to it.

Tsvetaeva Caricature by David Levine

Masha Matvejchuk declaims "Попытка ревности"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YmOVv3liDc