O blazing Muse of pure satire!
Come forth on my inviting call!
I do not need the thundering lyre,
Give me the scourge of Juvenal!
And neither lifeless imitators
Nor hungry, gluttonous translators,
Nor rhymesters, unsatisfied,
Shall fester from my pen tonight.
Peace to the poets, poor creators,
Peace to the journal’s adulators,
Peace to the fools who have been tamed!
But rascals, you I’ll put to shame, —
Come forth you villains, don’t resist!
And everyone I’ll punished then
But if by chance one I shall miss,
Please do remind me, gentlemen!
How many faces -- shameless-pale,
How many forehands — dull and stale,
Stand here, all ready to acquire
The timeless imprint of my lyre!
О муза пламенной сатиры!
Приди на мой призывный клич!
Не нужно мне гремящей лиры,
Вручи мне Ювеналов бич!
Не подражателям холодным,
Не переводчикам голодным,
Не безответным рифмачам
Готовлю язвы эпиграмм!
Мир вам, несчастные поэты,
Мир вам, журнальные клевреты,
Мир вам, смиренные глупцы!
А вы, ребята подлецы, —
Вперёд! Всю вашу сволочь буду
Я мучить казнию стыда!
Но если же кого забуду,
Прошу напомнить, господа!
О, сколько лиц бесстыдно-бледных,
О, сколько лбов широко-медных
Готовы от меня принять
Неизгладимую печать!
«He who has kissed time on its tormented temple / With filial tenderness will subsequently / Recollect how time took to its bed in a snowbank / The color of wheat beyond the window. / He who had raised the century’s inflamed eyelids — / Two giant apples swollen with sleep — / Will c...»
«Skyscrapers, and the sky below, / It nears the earth in misty layers. / The same covert and secret woe / Persists in vast and happy Paris. The evening boulevards are loud, / The sunset’s final glimmer dies. / And there are couples all around, / And trembling lips and daring eyes. I...»
«I need a miracle, Christ, My Lord! / Here, now, before the sun can rise! / O, let me pass on, while the world / Is like a book before my eyes. No, You are fair and will not judge: / "It’s not your time, and so live on." / For You have given me too much! / I long to take all roads — ...»
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