I Seek for Rhythmic Whisperings - Zinaida Hippius

I seek for rhythmic whisperings
Where noises bandy—
For life I listen wistfully
In footless banter.

I cast wide nets and tentative
In lakes of sorrow.
I go toward final tenderness
By pathways sordid.

I look for dewdrops glistering
In falsehood’s gardens.
I save truth’s globules glistening,
From dust-heaps garnered.

I fain would fathom fortitude
Through years of wormwood—
And pierce the mortal fortalice,
Yet live, a worldling.

My cup, through ways impassable,
To bear, untainted;
By tenebrous bleak passages
To joy attaining.

---

Zinaida Hippius (Zinaida Nikolayevna Gippius) (1869 - 1945) Russia
Translated by Babette Deutsch and Avrahm Yarmolinsky
Source: Modern Russian Poetry, Babette Deutsch and Avrahm Yarmolinsky. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1921