Николай Гумилёв - К

To ***

If you meet me, you won't recognize me!
If they call me by name, you won't know me!
Only once have I spoken to you,
Only once have I kissed your white hands.

But I swear to you that you will be mine,
Even if you belong to another man,
Even if, through the long and dull years,
I will never, for once, encounter you.

I swear this to you by the white church
That we saw together at daybreak —
In this church, unseen, you and I were wed
by the Seraph whose eyes were on fire.

And I swear this to you by the very dream
That I've had every night since then,
By my hungry yearning for you
In the great and weary desert, —

In the desert in which mountains rose
Like the tips of your young tender bosom,
In the desert in which sunsets burned
Like the bloody red of your lips.