More Russian pop poetry…

… or No disavowal for those in love

A song from a still unboundedly popular Soviet musical comedy. Music by Mikael Tariverdiev, words by Veronika Tushnova, a talented Soviet poet (1915–1965). The stanzas in [brackets] are part of the original poem, but not the song. The first lines of the stanzas are only repeated in the song. All errors and liberties mine; all suggestions welcome.

There’s no renouncing when in love:
life doesn’t end tomorrow.
I’ll stop waiting for you,
and you will come, all of a sudden.
There’s no renouncing when in love.

And you will come when it gets dark,
when snowstorms hit the window,
when you recall how long
we haven’t warmed each other.
Yes you will come when it gets dark.

So much you’ll need the warmth
that you once didn’t care about–
you’ll lose your patience standing in
a line of three at a street phone booth.
This is how much you’ll need the warmth.

[It will keep creeping, out of spite–
the tram, the train, the don’t-know-what,
the snowstorm burying up the tracks
at far approaches to the gate.]

[Sadness and silence in the house,
a meter’s wheeze and a book’s rustle
when you knock on the door
after a breathless run upstairs.]

You could give anything for that,
and I so much believe in it–
how can I not keep waiting for you
all day, right by the door?

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