I am no more that passioned lover,
Once the world's most marvelous face:
My spring and wondrous golden summer
Forever gone without a trace.
Oh Cupid, god of days of yore!
I was your faithful servant then;
If only to be born once more,
Oh how I'd serve you yet again!
Уж я не тот любовник страстный,
Кому дивился прежде свет:
Моя весна и лето красно
На век прошли, пропал и след.
Амур, бог возраста младого!
Я твой служитель верный был;
Ах, если б мог родиться снова,
Уж так ли б я тебе служил!
___
Clément Marot
1497-1544
De soi-même
Plus ne suis ce que j'ai été,
Et ne le saurais jamais être.
Mon beau printemps et mon été
Ont fait le saut par la fenêtre.
Amour, tu as été mon maître,
Je t'ai servi sur tous les Dieux.
Ah si je pouvais deux fois naître,
Comme je te servirais mieux!
___
«The cry of stations: don't go! / Of terminals: take pity! / And that of the brief stops: / Not exactly Dante's / Benediction: / "Abandon hope!" / And that of the engines. Whose iron shuddered / Like the thunder of an ocean wave. / At the tiny ticket-window, / It crossed my mind ...»
«Blanch — faced / Guardian of the age-old lapping — / Knight, knight, / Keeping watch on the river. (O could I find peace / In it from arms and mouths?!) / Sen — ti — nel / Set at your post of partings. The oaths, the rings... / Yes, like stones into the river / How many —...»
«If not a bayonet — then a tusk, a snowbank, a squall, — / On the hour, another train — to Immortality! / I came and knew one thing: it's just another stop. / And not worth unpacking. Upon everyone, everything — my indifferent eyes, / Come to rest — on the immemorial. / O how n...»
«How is your life with another, — / Simpler, is it? — One stroke of an oar!— / And as easily as some coastline / Your memory of me Recedes, like a floating island / (In the sky — not the water!) / Souls, souls! should be your sisters, / Not your mistress—es! How is your life w...»