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# I was walking down an unfamiliar street, and suddenly I heard the cawing of crows, and the sounds of a lute, and distant thunder; before me flew a tram
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/shel-ia-po-ulitse-neznakomoi-i-vdrug-uslyshal-voronii-grai-i-zvony-liutni-i-dalnie-gromy-peredo-mnoiu-letel-tramvai/
- Published: 2021-10-08T08:53:20.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T09:26:38.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Books, People

How I leapt onto its footboard  
Was a riddle to me.  
It left a fiery trail in the air,  
Even in the light of day.

*Literal translation*

It raced like a dark, winged storm,  
It had lost its way in the abyss of time…  
Stop it, tram driver,  
Stop the carriage at once.

*Literal translation*

Too late. We have already rounded the wall,  
We have dashed through a grove of palms,  
Across the Neva, across the Nile and the Seine  
We have thundered over three bridges.

*Literal translation*

And, flashing past the window frame,  
A beggar-old man cast after us  
An inquisitive glance, the very same one,  
Of course, who died in Beirut a year ago.

*Literal translation*

Where am I? So languidly and so anxiously  
My heart beats in reply:  
Do you see the station where one can  
Buy a ticket to the India of the Spirit?

*Literal translation*

A signboard… letters filled with blood  
Proclaim: greengrocer's. I know that here,  
Instead of cabbage and instead of swede,  
They sell dead heads...

*Literal translation*

Nikolai Gumilev, The Lost Tram