To sighs of morning air, that froze, —
(With her lips opened for a say),
How curiously has smiled the rose
On a September fleeting day!
And how has she ever dared
To greet, with air of springy queens,
The single blue-tit, in the bare
Shrubs fleshing in the orb of wings;
To bloom with steadfast dream that later,
Just leaving her cold bed in rest,
She’ll cling, the last and dissipated,
To a young hostess’s charming breast!
За вздохом утренним мороза,
Румянец уст приотворя,
Как странно улыбнулась роза
В день быстролетней сентября!
Перед порхающей синицей
В давно безлиственных кустах
Как дерзко выступать царицей
С приветом вешним на устах.
Расцвесть в надежде неуклонной —
С холодной разлучась грядой,
Прильнуть последней, опьяненной
К груди хозяйки молодой!
«Are you still alive, my starushka? / I am too, and I wanted to write. / I hope evening still bathes the cottage / in the same indescribable light. They tell me that you try to hide it, / but I'm causing you pain and distress. / You walk out on the road after supper / in your tattered an...»
«One white and lonely sail out there, / amidst fog and the ocean’s blue. / What does it seek in distant lands? / What’s amiss in the land it knew? Waves leap up into whistling wind; / the tall mast bends; the rigging creaks. / This isn’t a flight from trouble — / contentment is n...»
«A breast kissed wet, as though under a shower! / But summer streams do not flow forever, / And we cannot stay on here night after night, / Raising dust to the accordion’s low drone. I’ve heard about old age — a frightening prediction! / No crashing wave will lift its hands to the star...»
«As dawn gilded the burlap row / Of bags in the old grain shed, / A bitch there birthed a litter in snow: / Seven pups with fur all red. Till night she caressed them round / With her tongue combing them neat, / And meltwater trickled down / Under her belly’s heat. At dusk, when in the...»