Dance Macabre
Night. Street. Lamppost. Drugstore.
Meaningless and dreary light.
May live twenty five years more.
No escape. The things shall always be like that.
Die, start again all over
And everything of old repeats:
Night, cold ripples on the canal water
Lampposts, drugstores and dreary streets.
Translated by Emil Sharafutdinov (Emil S. on allpoetry)
That is my translation of the most famous fragment of great Russian poet Alexander Block. This piece considered to be proverbial for noir in Russia and belongs to the greater poem called "Dance Macabre"