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?
«Night: a street, a streetlight; drugstore; / A meaningless dim luminance. / Go live tor twenty-five years more — / Nothing will change. There's no way out. You'll die, and start again, while all / Recurs, identically: the night, / The chill ripples on the canal. / The drugstore, the s...»
«Dear Vova / Hallo there / I don't lead a bad / "life", / But if you've not married yet / Then don't take a wife.»
«An impish little Monkey, / A Goat, a Bear, / And their confrere, / A most judicious Donkey, / Resolved to play a string quartet in G. / Supplied with score, viola, two ашddles, and a bass, / They sat down in a shady place / To charm the whole world with their artistry: / They scrap...»
«King Lion, irritated by reports / Of corruption in the courts / And grave abuses of authority. / Set out to tour his realms and see what he could see. He chanced upon a Peasant who had caught a mess / Of fish, and put them in a pan to fry. / The poor things, sensing that their end w'as ni...»