In Russia – In Love
Caryl Traugott

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The cathedral bells tolled their benediction
as we strolled the Nevsky Prospekt hand in hand,
and you laughed when I licked the snowflakes from your eyelashes.
We listened to a gypsy violinist playing "Two Guitars",
while we drank scalding tea from a steaming samovar.
I gazed into your dark eyes, Anna, and knew that we were one.
Я люблю тебя !

Now have I come so far only to learn that you belong to another?
Why does love have to hurt so much?
How could you have forgotten so quickly?
A Russian proverb says: "It is very high up to God; it is very far to the Tsar!"
Perhaps that is my answer. *

*The verse above was found among Dmitri’s effects after he had died from the plague. Vincent translated it from the Russian and had Catherine send it to Anna. Even though Anna had married, both Vincent and Catherine felt she should know what had happened to her former love.