From the recording Born on A Monday
Original liner notes: This is a very romantic [read "sappy] Russian poem written in the 1830s by Lermontov and set to music by Tchaikovsky:
Translation in prose: A cloud comes to stay the night with a cliff. Being a free spirit, she leaves him in the morning to dance and play with alluring blue sky. He, however, being a rock, can do nothing but think of her and sob, quietly, in the desert.
Man... those Russian poets...
Lyrics
Ночевала тучка золотая
На груди утеса-великана;
Утром в путь она умчалась рано,
По лазури весело играя;
Но остался влажный след в морщине
Старого утеса. Одиноко
Он стоит, задумался глубоко,
И тихонько плачет он в пустыне.