Her dry lips were tightly closed up.
Three thousand candles swayed.
Thus Princess Eudoxia lay atop
The scented, sapphire brocade.
A tearless mother, bowing down,
Prayed to her for her blind son,
And a voiceless hysteric thrashed about
Lapping for air on the run.
And he, who arrived from the south,
A hunchbacked old man with dark eyes,
Clenched the wall of the stairway, worn out,
Like the door into paradise.
Плотно сомкнуты губы сухие,
Жарко пламя трех тысяч свечей.
Так лежала княжна Евдокия
На душистой сапфирной парче.
И, согнувшись, бесслезно молилась
Ей о слепеньком мальчике мать,
И кликуша без голоса билась,
Воздух силясь губами поймать.
А пришедший из южного края
Черноглазый, горбатый старик,
Словно к двери небесного рая,
К потемневшей ступеньке приник.
«I’ll never forget it (did it happen or not, / This evening): The setting sun’s blaze / Drew open the sky and burned it, red hot, / And the streetlamps shone — in its rays. / I sat by the window and leaned on the pane. / Distant bows sang something of love. / I sent you a black rose...»
«There, a man burned. / Fet Among the crowds, it’s becoming harder / To act undead, when life is make-believe, / And to relate tragic play of ardor / To all of those who’ve yet to really live. And to inspect your nightmares and aspire / For order in the vortex of the heart, / So tha...»
«I while away my life in stride, / It’s senseless to me and redundant: / Today, I’m soberly — triumphant, / Tomorrow, I will — sing and cry. What if my death is getting nearer? / What if, behind me, stands a man, / Who, reaching with his massive hand, / Will block the image in t...»
«The night, the pharmacy, the street, / The pointless lamppost in the mist. / A quarter century recedes — / There’s no escape. It all persists. You’ll die — and you’ll begin anew, / As in the past, all will repeat: / The icy channel flowing through, / The lamp, the pharmacy, t»