Water

Water?
Yes, it’s water.
And here we have the surety:
It follows water’s laws;
It falls in drops,
It flows,
It passes all the tests of clarity and purity—
But does it serve to slake
Your thirst, or wash your clothes?
It scorns to deck its rim with rushes, reeds
                    and sedges—
No sheen of silv’ry fish in dim mysterious deeps,
No waving water-reeds. And round its tidy edges
No song-bird sings, and ne’er a willow weeps.

Water?
Yes, it’s water;
It’s proved by all the data,
Although it knows no wave of storm or strife.
And this
This H₂0
This aqua distillata
Has all that water has
Yes,
All but life.

LEONID MARTYNOV
Translated liy Archie Jolmstone