I Pardon All Your Sins by Sofia Parnok

I pardon all your sins –

but two I can’t abide:

you read poems in silence

and kiss aloud.

 

So sin, blossom, be merry –

but take my advice:

a kiss, my darling, is not for the ear,

and music is not for the eyes.

 

by София Яковлевна Парнок (Sophia Yakovlena Parnok) (1931)

translated by Robert Chandler

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