Yes, I have loved. And the mad glowing
Of love’s drunk pain is at an end.
The triumph and the overthrowing,
The name of “foe”, the word of “friend”.
There have been many. . . . Are all fleeting?
Mere memories and shades of dreams.
Strangely I call them up, repeating
The golden music of their names.
There have been many. But a single
Charm bound them all in unity,
One frenzied Beauty made them mingle;
Its name is Love and Life to me!
Passion mysteriously breaking,
Lifted above the world on high
I saw another woman seeking
The fated place where passions lie.
And those same words, those same embraces.
On greedy lips the tedious lure.
Shoulders with ever-fading graces. . . .
No! Life unloving, empty, pure!
In my breast exultation surges;
From mountain-summits deep in snow
I send an avalanche by gorges
Where once I loved and kissed below!
И я любил. И я изведал
Безумный хмель любовных мук,
И пораженья, и победы,
И имя: враг; и слово: друг.
Их было много… Что́ я знаю?
Воспоминанья, тени сна…
Я только странно повторяю
Их золотые имена.
Их было много. Но одною
Чертой соединил их я,
Одной безумной красотою,
Чьё имя: страсть и жизнь моя.
И страсти таинство свершая,
И поднимаясь над землёй,
Я видел, как идёт другая
На ложе страсти роковой…
И те же ласки, те же речи,
Постылый трепет жадных уст,
И примелькавшиеся плечи…
Нет! Мир бесстрастен, чист и пуст!
И, наполняя грудь весельем,
С вершины самых снежных скал
Я шлю лавину тем ущельям,
Где я любил и целовал!
«In the calm night, in late summer, / How the stars grow blush in heaven! / Under their gloomy light rays / Sleepy wheatfields ripen, heaving... / How their golden waves are shining / In the calmness of the night, / They are drowsy, eerie silent, / Whitened by the bright moon light... /...»
«Nature is a sphinx. / The truer she kills you / with her eternal riddle, / it's more than likely, / for centuries, / the truer she has fooled you.»
«Lord, send your comfort / to him who, during summerТs scorching heat, / like some poor beggar past a garden, / along a hot road drags his weary feet, who gazes in passing across a fence / at the shades of trees, at valleysТ golden grain / and at the inaccessible coolness / of softly b...»
«When natureТs final hour strikes / and earthly matter has disintegrated, / the visible universe will be flooded. / In the waters GodТs face will be reflected.»