Over the empty fields a black kite hovers,
And circle after circle smoothly weaves.
In the poor hut, over her son in the cradle
A mother grieves:
“There, suck my brest: there grow and take our bread,
And learn to bear your cross and bow your head.”
Time passes. War returns. Rebellion rages.
The farms and villages go up in flame,
And Russia in her ancient tear-stained beauty,
Is yet the same.
Unchanged through all the ages. How long will
The mother grieve and the kite circle still?
Чертя за кругом плавный круг,
Над сонным лугом коршун кружит
И смотрит на пустынный луг. —
В избушке мать над сыном тужит:
«На́ хлеба, на́, на́ грудь, соси,
Расти, покорствуй, крест неси».
Идут века, шумит война,
Встаёт мятеж, горят деревни,
А ты всё та ж, моя страна,
В красе заплаканной и древней. —
Доколе матери тужить?
Доколе коршуну кружить?
«How’re you living with another? / Easier? — A splash of oar! — / Has your memory quickly rather / Vanished like an ocean shore? The memory of me (an island, high / In the sky, not in the sea!); / Souls, o souls... You will be bound by / Sympathy, not fervency! How’re yo...»
«A human body ‘s bare; / A singleton, god’s jesting. / The soul is bloody weary / Of such a solid casing. / A silver dollar matches / Its eyes, and rivals ears, / The skin — all scars and scratches — / Stretched to the bones adheres. Out through the eyes aspired / Into the sk...»
«I The auguries don't bother me, and signs / Don't scare me off. I don't evade the slander / Or poison. Since — there is no death. / We are immortal — everything's immortal. / One shouldn't be scared of death, be it at nine — / Or ninety. There is only life and light — / The uni...»
«Each moment was for us a celebration / As ceremony of consecration — / Just us in the whole world... You would spring / As full of dare and flight as a falcon on the wing / Heady as vertigo in one breath taking motion. / You hurried down to where you would bring / The two of us behind ...»