Midnight phantoms hover
Glittering bright with sparks in the darkness.
But my eyes cannot make out
How many of them, on their ominous wings.
Midnight phantoms groan
Like a sick man in exhausted sleep,
They rise to the surface, and groan and sink again –—
But what are they groaning about?
Midnight phantoms howl,
Like a dog frightened by ghosts;
Now surging in, now parting over the abyss,
As a wave uncovers a cliff.
Полуночные образы реют,
Блещут искрами ярко впотьмах,
Но глаза различить не умеют,
Много ль их на тревожных крылах.
Полуночные образы стонут,
Как больной в утомительном сне,
И всплывают, и стонут, и тонут —
Но о чем это стонут оне?
Полуночные образы воют,
Как духов испугавшийся пес;
То нахлынут, то бездну откроют,
Как волна обнажает утес.
«From the mind’s dreams, from the bile’s rage, / Goddess of Faithfulness, keep your slave. With cast-iron hoops bind tight her breast, / Goddess of Faithfulness, be her nest. Remove from the shrub all flowers and pips, / Make her mouth numb, then seal her lips. As safe as bone encased ...»
«When parched with thirst, give me water, / One glass, or else I’ll die. / Persistently — languidly — melodically — / I pledge my feverish cry Repeated at length — yet still more fiercely, / Once more — again / Tossing all night long for sleep, / Aware all sleep is spent. ...»
«After a sleepless night my body grows weaker, / Becomes sweet and no one’s — no longer mine. / In the slow veins the arrows still flicker, / And like a seraph, I smile at passers-by. After a sleepless night my arms grow languid; / Friend or foe, my indifference is complete. / A full r...»
«It's dreadful! It drips and it listens: / Does nobody else in the world / Press branches, like lace, in a window' / Or is there...a witness? The ground is so swollen and smothered, / Too spongy, too heavy to breathe / But listen — far off, as in August — / How midnight grows ripe in...»