The Poem of The End

The Poem of the End (with "The" in the title) is a major poem by the White Russian symbolist poet Marina Tsvetaeva. Written in Prague in 1924, the poem details the end of a passionate affair with Konstantin Boeslavovich Rozdevitch, a former military officer. Each of the sections deals with the crossing of a bridge and the symbolism is echoed relentlessly throughout the poem; the mood is unremittingly tense and foreboding.

Lovers for the most

part are without hope: passion

also is just

a bridge, a means of connection

(from the Elaine Feinstein translation).

The happy lot

Of lovers without hope:

Bridge, you are like passion:

A convention: pure transition.

(from the Nina Kossman translation)