Traveler take my hand, let’s cross the mirror of ice
That petrifies the enchanted horizon of the Volga
Here the birds are ghosts
And old women have magic in their winged eyes

I covered your eyes with a flowery scarf
And we jumped into the tempestuous river
I embraced you until night; our burning bodies melted all the ice
The thunder struck a tree, I jumped, you smiled at me,

And the moon uncovered a bed of red and purple flowers
You looked at me, I cried when I saw that you loved me
My dagger was not used, no one came to threaten us
Except for the sun, and the day that rose like a lazy mermaid

Your eyes turned white from looking at my naked body
The grasses parted to let our bodies unite
Ants were climbing on my hip, and your hand chased them away
God, the hill was beautiful, covered with a blue halo and clouds

I was crying with joy, you were in my arms, you were making love to me in Russian
I didn’t understand anything, my heart melted in the wind,
My hands caressed your hair, and my soul was diluted in time
There was no one but us to admire the sky

Saransk and its noise far away from us, in the countryside one inside the other
A radio in the damp grass listened to us loving each other
The sun flickered at the sound of your lips on my skin
We returned to the city, moistened by the night and love

Ogarev University looked at us, the birds on the houses looked livid
Nothing mattered but us, Russia disappeared, the world sparkled
We entered the Mastorave bookshop, you handed me a book
I didn’t read the title, I looked at your smile, night was falling on Saransk

The dirt streets hypnotized by the frost, the vans drove by
Your hand in mine, I waited for the stars to light up one by one
Like candles I would have lit on the mountain, one by one
With my slender fingers, without burning me more than the fire of your presence

The hotel bent under the winter frost, my love, and the sheets cried
The wrought windows shook that night, we loved each other
A lightning passed through the shutters, it was the train that defied the night

In the morning I undressed in a banya (Russian sauna) looking at the wooden floor
You waited for me and we went out into the world again, the morning was yawning
Like a child eager to discover the world; there was an abandoned church
I proposed a hundred times before you took me in your arms,

The jeep shook on the way back, the road swayed dangerously
You closed your eyes, the mud moved away from the spiked wheels, the moon appeared
Like an oxidized chandelier in a too-bright sky; the evening fell on the Volga
The ghost of Ivan III fighting the Golden Horde appeared in the evening

Was it a hallucination, or the lack of sleep? My love your face
Was a caress for my eyes, let me caress your mouth with my lips
And my hand on your chest, let me drive the jeep through the pines
Until the moon becomes a distant memory, until the night drags us

In a trap of invincible love, in a starry prison of shards of glass
Take my hand, let’s defy the night, make love to me on the frost that dresses the earth
My body is burning, the churches are enough far away, God will close his eyes
Make love to me a hundred times, before the day comes back to haunt the earth with its feverish gaze