One day in foggy October
I walked recollecting a song,
(The instance of kissing all over!
Caresses that cannot be wrong!)
At last in the foggy October
There came the forgotten song.
I dreamed I was young and not worried,
And you were as live as a bloom...
My dream took me out and carried
Away from the wind, rain and gloom...
(That's how by our dreams we are scurried...
So will you come back, live as a bloom?)
And then, emerging from darkness,
A staggering youth, comes to me.
(Oh what an amazing likeness
To someone I happened to see!)
Emerging from foggy darkness,
A staggering youth, comes to me.
«I'm tired of roaming — he grouses —
And taking the air, so cold,
Reflecting in mirrors of others
And kissing those girls, young and old...»
I fancied that some day or other
I'd meet him again in this world...
Then, smiling with self assertion,
He vanished for ever more...
Sad image...I had the impression
That I had seen it before...
Perchance it was me whom I saw
Turn up as a mirror reflection?
Однажды в октябрьском тумане
Я брел, вспоминая напев.
(О, миг непродажных лобзаний!
О, ласки некупленных дев!)
И вот - в непроглядном тумане
Возник позабытый напев.
И стала мне молодость сниться,
И ты, как живая, и ты...
И стал я мечтой уноситься
От ветра, дождя, темноты...
(Так ранняя молодость снится.
А ты-то, вернешься ли ты?)
Вдруг вижу — из ночи туманной,
Шатаясь, подходит ко мне
Стареющий юноша (странно,
Не снился ли мне он во сне?),
Выходит из ночи туманной
И прямо подходит ко мне.
И шепчет: «Устал я шататься,
Промозглым туманом дышать,
В чужих зеркалах отражаться
И женщин чужих целовать...»
И стало мне странным казаться,
Что я его встречу опять...
Вдруг — от улыбнулся нахально,
И нет близ меня никого...
Знаком этот образ печальный,
И где-то я видел его...
Быть может, себя самого
Я встретил на глади зеркальной?
«So be it once again — not a friend, o my beloved! / But a brother I will be to you / Forever in our dear / Nation's thought and fate. Because we both by Solovyov / Were mysteriously christened, / Because by a new betrothal / We are betrothed to Her, the Only One. The cloth has been...»
«The regal serpent has a two-pointed tongue; / The angel of Impulses has two wings. / To a parting of the ways your soul has come: / The ruler of this path is Rachel; and of the other — Leah. Just as a horse's bit obeys two reins, / So to one belong actions, and to the other - bless...»
«The people change addresses, move, / They part and leave and disappear, / And only an autumn grove / Is permanent, it will be here. What in the very end remains? / Not idle talks or strained relations, — / — A mowed field, the vast of plains, / A forest road to a train station. Th...»
«I am an eye stripped of its lid. I’ve been abandoned on the ground, / So I’ll dismantle and reflect this world… / The images, they slide. I feel, I heed, / But they are merely glimpses that I can’t hold down. And often during dusk, when stacks are blowing smoke / Over the blue-lit c...»