Есть только миг... [Est' tol'ko mig...] [English translation]

Leonid Derbenyov

A flush of time

In this wild world everything is ambiguous.

There is the time, for which you’re ought to strive –

A flash of time that’s so short and exiguous.

That is the one, which is called “our life.”

Eternal rest would unlikely enchant your soul,

Eternal rest isn’t for bells meant to chime.

And for a star that is born and then swiftly falls,

There is a flash, bright and short flash of time.

Let this world’s life fly through times and continue,

But I don’t feel I should follow along.

What do I risk? What at most do I value?

One flash of time, which won’t last all that long.

Troubles and luck in this world are contiguous.

There is the time, for which you’re ought to strive –

A flash of time that’s so short and exiguous.

That is the one, which is called “our life.”

English translation in verse by ©Leo Schwartzberg 2021