At my cheerless table
I a-musing sit:
How is one to be
In the world alone?
I, a stalwart youth,
Have no wife, no mate;
I, a stalwart youth,
Want a loving friend.
Want a harrow, share;
Want a kindly hearth;
Want a barn well-stocked,
And a good plough-horse.
One small heritage,
Joined with poverty,
My good father left, —
’Tis my lusty strength.
Even that how soon
Bitter need lays low,
Among strangers spent
In unfruitful toil.
At my cheerless table
I a-musing sit:
How is one to be
In the world alone?
Сяду я за стол —
Да подумаю:
Как на свете жить
Одинокому?
Нет у молодца
Молодой жены,
Нет у молодца
Друга вернова,
Золотой казны,
Угла тёплова,
Бороны-сохи,
Коня-пахаря;
Вместе с бедностью
Дал мне батюшка
Лишь один талан —
Силу крепкую;
Да и ту как раз
Нужда горькая
По чужим людям
Всю истратила.
Сяду я за стол —
Да подумаю:
Как на свете жить
Одинокому?
«Is this mingled shadows. / Only shadows, on a moonlit night of May? / Is this specks of light, or lilac’s flowers / Turned pale there, falling / On your knees? Was it in / Waking hours, and was it you that I loved / Madly and unquestioningly / In the...»
«The sorrow of its roulade / Is betrothed to the dawn... / How glad I should be / Not to hear this toy! Let it be the same tomorrow / As it was yesterday... / Though louder at first, its / Game continues more evenly... But now, already not reading / The long-hateful notes, / The gol...»
«I knew that Anguish would / Return and stay with me. / It will tinkle and shut / With the watchmaker’s door. He who has opened the door to it / Will link and again unlink the / Palpitation of the steel heart / With the chirring of the wings... Cicadas impatiently beat with / Eager ...»
«For the time being it is still granted to us, while / Living, to pine in an anguish of increasing dread, / But already it is decreed that hearts shall deceive / Each other and lie to themselves while growing cold; For the time being, clinging to the frozen / Window, the Shadow of Infirmity ...»