Poetry in Motion
Los Angeles
If there is something to desire
Vera Pavlova
If there is something to desire,
there will be something to regret.
If there is something to regret,
there will be something to recall.
If there is something to recall,
there was nothing to regret.
If there was nothing to regret,
there was nothing to desire.
Translated from the Russian by Steven Seymour
"If there is something to desire," by Vera Pavlova, translated by Steven Seymour. Copyright © 2007 by Vera Pavlova and Steven Seymour. Reprinted with the permission of the author and the translator.