Giraffe (N. Gumilyov)

GIRAFFE

Today, I can see that your glance is especially sad,
And hands are especially thin and the hair if up fluff.
Hey, listen, as far as in Africa, down at lake Chad
Is walking a graceful Giraffe.

He's owing that elegance, slender and languor he is,
Such beautiful patterns are shimmering over his skin,
That only the Moon can be drawing a similar fleece
On fluttering water of lakes with the tidiest sheen.

He looks like a colorful sail if you look from afar,
His running is smooth as the flight of a hovering hawk.
I know about wonders in sight of the first evening star
When he hides in his grotto of marble on top of great rock.

Please listen, I'll take you to hundreds of mystery tours,
I'll tell about witches in love, who are going insane.
But all you would do is just sigh without reason and mourn.
Not ever believing in anything other than rain.

And how do I tell about garden within a rosebud,
Which opens it petals under the light of the Plough...
You're crying?... Please listen, down at lake Chad,
Is walking a graceful Giraffe...

Nikolay Gumilyov, 1907.