Rusalka

RUSALKA (Russian Mermaid)

I’m Russian Mermaid,

A half-witted girl

Swimming merrily in the waters

Going out into the night,

I’m drawing a light halo

Around the moon.

With a languid gleam on the water,

Singing a hymn to the star,

The one that is free, like me,

In the circle of water naiads,

It leads a round dance with me

Under the moon.

My scattered hair

Is stretched out in a free flow,

But the lure shines on me,

And here is the fishing tackle

Is threatening to take me over

And catch in a tight net,

So that I can be a prey

To satisfy the fisherman’s earthly whim

Without a flower crown.

He will mark me with the word "slut"

My unsteady river surface,

The depth of my water soul,

And the expanse of my dreams.

But he will be embraced by fear

From his head to toe,

When the cross of his spoon

Will dive into my dreams

And go with me to the bottom -

After all, it is one for all -

The bottom of the world where darkness roams.

It takes a fisherman

Who sailed from afar,

To its wet abode

And grants him peace and shelter,

And a divine catch...