Marina Tsvetaeva - Passerby

You walk — so like me, passing Your eyes are lowered, too I once would lower mine — asking Passer-by, I beg — it’s you Read here — of blindness fleeting And poppies in my hand That they once called me Marina And how old I was — you’ll understand Don’t think this place — a graveyard That I’ll appear to scold I loved too much the laughter When laughter was not to be told And blood would rise and cover My skin with sudden flame I too once lived, O passer O passer — remember my name Pluck now a wild stem, lightly And a berry — crimson red Graveyard strawberries ripen More sweetly than others, it’s said But don’t stand there gloomed and grounded Your head upon your chest Think lightly of me — unbounded And lightly forget the rest As sunlight around you’s playing You’re bathed in golden gleam — And let it not be dismaying My voice — from under the stream