So when I retire from the timeline stream
Abandoning censure and praise
Remember the kindness, the warmhearted dream
I lived on and bloomed in those days.
My darling, I know You"ll forget all the spite
There used to be on my part,
When You, like a swan, appeared, snow-white,
Impaling the depth of my heart.
I wasn't the one who had wounded Your pride,
It was someone else's design.
Dark clouds would trouble my day and my light,
Your day was brighter than mine.
So when I retire from this lifetime string
And vanish beyond the blue grid,
You will remember the song we would sing, —
I'd sing it, and You would repeat.
Когда я уйду на покой от времен,
Уйду от хулы и похвал,
Ты вспомни ту нежность, тот ласковый сон,
Которым я цвел и дышал.
Я знаю, не вспомнишь Ты, Светлая, зла,
Которое билось во мне,
Когда подходила Ты, стройно бела,
Как лебедь, к моей глубине
Не я возмущал Твою гордую лень —
То чуждая сила его.
Холодная туча смущала мой день, —
Твой день был светлей моего.
Ты вспомнишь, когда я уйду на покой,
Исчезну за синей чертой, —
Одну только песню, что пел я с Тобой,
Что Ты повторяла за мной.
«We saw death at rather close range, / and perhaps we could have died ourselves, / we walked wherever it was possible to walk, / and looked at everything that one could look at. / We climbed into trenches / drenched with the smell of creosote / and “sake” spilt on the sand, / where ...»
«To A. Surkov Remember, Alyosha, the roads of Smolensk, / The cruel, the endlessly falling rain, / The tired women bringing us earthenware vessels, / And hugging them, like children, from the rain, How they wiped their eyes, stealthily, / And whispered on parting: “May God protect you! / ...»
«On an accordion which had seen plenty, / Moving his fingers over husky keys, / In an unfamiliar car the blind man played / The song “Along the Highway.”1 Blinded near Molodechno, / Back in that other, different war, / Straight from the clinic, he had set out, crippled, / His eyes sh...»
«Wait for me, and I’ll come back, / But wait with all your might, / Wait when dreariness descends / With the yellow rains, / Wait when snowdrifts sweep the ground, / Wait during the heat, / Wait when others are given up / And together with the past forgotten. / Wait when from distan...»