Antwerpen
By Alexander Blok
Then let this time be distant far,
Antwerpen! - From behind the blood sea
You're deep in memory of mine...
The fluvial haze crawls from the upper stream
Of river Esko, wide as Neva one.
And over the waters silent
In warmth and depth of haze, as eye
Of young girl of Flamandia, there crowding
A plenty of the dreams, shipyards, dockyrds,
All there smells with tackle, tar.
Disturbing a water plain, in smoke,
Which is prostrated sea all over,
There a heavy steamer with two posts
Is going to give its anchors:
Now it's on way to the shores of Congo.
And you - should look there in the epochs dark
In quietness of the town's museum:
There Kwentin Massiss - is a tzar,
There in the folds of Salomeya's wear
The flowers of gold are interwined...
But all - is pretence, all - deceit:
Look upper... In the sheet of asure,
Streaking throughout haze, you'll see
The harbinger of a storm weather -
The circling aeroplane's glee.
5 Oct 1914