1.

...And having read the book's last pages

Perceive delight which quickens the blood.

The love - is living; beatific are her stages

And time could still reverse it's flood!

                2.

...And having read the book's last pages

You will consider with recoil

That there's no love - just lonely cages

And men who're fainting from this toil.

Author's liner notes: these two poems appeared in my head after reading the novelette of the great Russian writer Ivan Turgenev called "The day before" ("Nakanune"). First came the second one, and the first came a week later. What you see here has been translated into English. What side do you take, what poem is closer to your heart? Think a little about it. If you can't decide, take a piece of paper, write the first poem on one side and the second on the other, and then choose it randomly.