Balmont K. An old songlet

                — Ah, mamma! Why did you say it?
                — Ah, lass! Why did you do it?
                From endless small talk.

Once, a daughter had a call —
With her mother she’d share all —
She said, looking black as sin,
“How d’we some money win?”

“Were I now young,
Up on things not being hung,
I’d win them, and that’s all,”
Followed then her mother’s call.

Having sworn to it to vent,
For a minute off she went,
Yet, till darkness gathered in,
Lass did not return therein.

“Lassie, lassie — Goodness me! —
Such distress you’re causing, see?”
Anxious mother long shall call:
Daughter’s sent her up the wall.

In this manner much time’s passed;
Truly, Evil travels fast:
Mother let it slip to vent —
Daughter’s brought an extra cent.

Mother’s stiff to daughter’s call,
“Do you want to check the haul?”
“Lassie, lassie — Goodness me! —
How did this come to be?”

“You had said — and I went.”
“I’d let it slip to vent.”
“You’d let slip — and thereby,
Mother, I stepped awry.”

―
«Только любовь», «Проклятия», «Старая песенка», 1903