"Signs" by Marina Tsvetaeva
If you've still not read Letters: Summer 1926 (letters between Pasternak, Tsvetaeva, and Rilke) you're missing something BIG. Maybe Marina's "Signs," which I loved from the very first read and is included in the Epilogue, will entice you to pick up the book (it reads like a love story between three great poets). Signs As though bearing a mountain in my skirts-- My whole body hurts! I recognize love by the pain My whole body's length. As though a field in me had been rent For the least deluge. I recognize love by the distance Of everything nearest. As though a lair had been dug inside me, To the core, the tar. I recognize love by the vein Moaning my body's Length. Fanning out like a mane, Sudden gust, a Hun: I recognize love by the crack Of all the truest Throat strings; rust in the throat Crevices. Live salt. I recognize love by the cleft, No, by the trill, My whole body's length! (translated by Jamey Gambrell)