Vladimir Majakovski

IMPOSSIBLE

I can’t do it alone
-carry the grand piano
(and even less,the safe).
But if I can’t manage the safe
or the grand piano,
then,having retrieved it,
how can I carry my heart.
Bankers know:“We’re boundlessly rich.
If we don’t have enough pockets,
we can stuff our safes.
”In you—
I have hidden my love ,
like riches in steel,and I walk about
exalting, a Croesus.
And,if desire insist
I can draw out a smile,
a half-smile,even less,
and, in company reveling,
in half a nights expend
some fifteen roubles’ worth of lyrical change.

CONCLUSION

Neither quarrels,
nor miles,
can wash away love.
It has been deeply thought,
tested,checked.
Solemnly raising index-lined verse,
I swear-
I love
immutably, truly!

YOU

You came—
determined,
because I was large,
because I was roaring,
but on close inspection
you saw a mere boy.
You seized
and snatched away my heart
and began
to play with it—
like a girl with a bouncing ball.
And before this miracle
every woman
was either astounded
or a maiden inquiring:
“Love such a fellow?
Why, he’ll pounce on you!
She must be a lion tamer,
a girl from the zoo!”But I was triumphant,
I didn’t feel it—the yoke!
Oblivious with joy,I jumped
and leapt about, a bride-
happy redskin,
I felt so elated
and light.