To Russia by Tatiana Pahlen

To Russia
By Tatiana Pahlen

Do not try,
I shall not turn my head
toward old times to seek help
from my homesickness;
Those who strolled across Dante's hell
rejecting sacrilege at their past torment.
The new chimes cannot blacken the truth,
glamorizing the graveyard's monuments,
Many times you were charred and raised anew
from riots and wars, my poor Motherland.
Yet at spring, there lures a scent of thaw
migrant birds rushing back from banishment . . .
Why are those odd, stifling dreams
Once again ruffling my soul?

First written in Russian 1985.
Translated into English November 1, 1995.