Sashenka

There where the waves spray

The feet of solitary reefs…

A loving enchantress

Gave me her talisman.

She told me with tenderness:

You must not lose it,

Its power is infallible,

Love gave it to you.

Here I am abandoned, an orphan, with no one to look after me,

And I will die before long and there’ll be no one to pray at my grave,

Only the nightingale will sing sometimes on the nearest tree…