Amid the virgin maples and the weeping birches
Upon those arrogant pines to gaze I cannot brook;
The flocks of my sweet living daydreams they disturb,
Hateful to me their sober look.
Amid the gathering of their reborn neighbours
It's they alone that stir not, whisper not, nor sigh,
And they, immutable, remind the joyous springtime
Of the bleak winter days gone by.
And when the forest shall the last dry leaf let fall
And silently await the spring's new life again,
They, breathing fear to other generations, shall
In all their beauty cold remain.
Средь клёнов девственных и плачущих берёз
Я видеть не могу надменных этих сосен;
Они смущают рой живых и сладких грёз,
И трезвый вид мне их несносен.
В кругу воскреснувших соседей лишь оне
Не знают трепета, не шепчут, не вздыхают
И, неизменные, ликующей весне
Пору́ зимы напоминают.
Когда уронит лес последний лист сухой
И, смолкнув, станет ждать весны и возрожденья, —
Они останутся холодною красой
Пугать иные поколенья.
«1 In deep ruts the village is floundering, / Poor homes huddle under the trees. / From dips and on high ground all round you / The blue vault of heaven is seen. At dusk in the long winter twilight / Wolves fearsomely howl in bare fields / And horses are snorting in farmyards / Where fr...»
«The dry weather stifled the sowings, / The rye withered, oats did not sprout. / The girls with church banners were going / To pray in the fields hit by drought. Parishioners met by the coppice, / From grief like а fever they pined. / The lean deacon prayed without stopping. / "О Lord,...»
«In а land of yellow nettle / And wattle fence / Up to willows huddled humble / Cottages. In the fields beyond blue thickets / Past green lakes / To Siberian mines а sandy / Highway lay. ...»
«Teeth she has none, she's decrepit, / Rumpled horns her age betray. / Hard blows the boor of а herdsman / Dealt her when she went astray. Noise she dislikes, cannot stand it. / Cowshed-mice busily gnaw. / Sadly she thinks of the handsome / White-legged calf that she bore. They took th...»