Э. Асадов "Оценка любви"/E.Asadov "Appraisal of love"

Scroll for my English adaptation of the poem. I made every effort to preserve the poet's original rhythm and pattern.

Music: "DD Groove" by Kevin MacLeod.
Under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
Images/narration: Mila Gee

E.Asadov "Appraisal of love"

I ran into my neighbor yesterday;
he said, “Do come visit me at my place,
formalities aside, meet face-to-face
the girl I’m in love with, what do you say?

Whether you’d like her remains to be seen,
I trust my view of her is impartial:
she’s no deep thinker or a beauty queen,
like hundreds others, she’s nothing special,
yet I l do love her: you know what I mean?”

And after my friendly neighbor ran along,
I kept thinking what I just heard was wrong
I wondered if his happy spell would last;
if so, for how long: a few months, a year?
One thing is certain: the thrill will fade fast,
as for loving her—he doesn’t, I fear.

If one’s head’s tipsy with love, may I ask,
how can a happy man by love inspired,
to even imagine, what’s more to suggest,
her intelligence as less than desired,
and her appearance as far from the best.

How can he passionately dream of her,
and also think of his one-and-only
as inothing special, common, as it were,
someone who is neither smart nor comely?

No, if you are head-over-heels in love,
you see your love as the most romantic,
one in a million, completely unique,
to you she’s a gift of joy from above.

No matter, whether the sky is pure blue
or whether it’s grey as the raindrops fall,
she will shine as a proud rainbow for you,
the smartest and the fairest of them all.

Видео Э. Асадов "Оценка любви"/E.Asadov "Appraisal of love" канала Mila Gee Reads Poetry