I don't know, I can't explain - Innokenty Annensky

I don't know, I can't explain...
Do I love or do I die?
Is it a dream or is it Verlaine?

Is it a spell or a prison cell?
Either the torture of the ideal
Or the beauty's torment
Is spilled in the whole world
From a broken goblet.

The dream might be wrong as well
Whether she is the one,
In the light of the ideal
The dream might guess in vain
Is it spell or a prison cell?
Is it a dream or is it Verlaine?

But the roses of my cell
Breathed the scent to my lips,
And my dream will sing again
To the music of Verlaine.

---

Innokenty Annensky (1855 - 1909) Russia
Translated by Ian Probstein