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Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

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by Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva (1892 - 1941)
Translation © by John Plant

Руки люблю/ Целовать, и люблю
Language: Russian (Русский) 
Руки люблю
Целовать, и люблю
Имена раздавать,
И еще – раскрывать
Двери!
– Настежь – в темную ночь!

Голову сжав,
Слушать, как тяжкий шаг
Где-то легчает,
Как ветер качает
Сонный, бессонный
Лес.

Ах, ночь!
Где-то бегут ключи,
Ко сну – клонит.
Сплю почти
Где-то в ночи
Человек тонет.

About the headline (FAQ)

Show a transliteration: Default | DIN | GOST

Note on Transliterations

Text Authorship:

  • by Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva (1892 - 1941), no title, written 1916 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

    [ None yet in the database ]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in English, a translation by John Plant , copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission ; composed by John Plant.
      • Go to the text.

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2023-03-08
Line count: 18
Word count: 48

I love to kiss hands
Language: English  after the Russian (Русский) 
I love to kiss hands
I love to bestow names 
and even to open doors! 
Wide open
into the dark night.....

I leave my sleeping house.
Winds of July sweep my path.
Somewhere - from a window - faint music. 
Ah! Tonight let the wind blow till dawn 
straight through the thin walls of my chest.

A black poplar. Light in a window. 
Bells in the tower. A flower in my hand. 
A footstep, but no one behind me
A shadow - but of me, nothing.

Flames, like threads of golden beads.
In my mouth, the taste of the leaves of night. 
Shake off the vestiges of day.
Friends, understand: you're dreaming me.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by John Plant , copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Based on:

  • a text in Russian (Русский) by Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva (1892 - 1941), no title, written 1916
    • Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by John Plant , "I love to kiss hands", first performed 2015 [ soprano, alto saxophone, piano ], from Insomnia, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2023-03-08
Line count: 18
Word count: 110

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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