Original
Не нависай
Не розраховуй на менеЯк на власність, яку можеш отримати,А розраховуй на менеЯк на друга, який може підтриматиВ хвилини радості і смутку.
Не вимагай від менеБути перед тобою у чомусь зобов’язаним,Не вимагай від менеСтавати твоїм полоненим чи в’язнем,Що втрачає свою думку.
Translation
Don't Hover
Don't count on meas on property you can acquire,but count on meas on a friend who can support youin minutes of joy and of sadness.
Don't demand of meto be obliged to you in anything,don't demand of meto become your captive or your prisonerwho loses his own opinion.
About the poem
An unrhymed manifesto, the only free verse in the section. Don’t count on me as property; count on me as a friend. Don’t demand that I be obliged to you, or become your captive “losing my own thought.” Don’t do for me what you don’t really want to do; don’t live for me “if you haven’t learned to live for yourself.” The last stanza gathers the three refusals into a condition and turns them inside out: “Don’t count on me, don’t demand from me, don’t do for me — if you want me.” Love defined by what it will not accept.