I stood for long before the hell’s gates, heavy,
But in the hell all was just dark and calm...
Oh, even Devil does not need my levy.
Wherever shall I come?
Стояла долго я у врат тяжелых ада,
Но было тихо и темно в аду...
О, даже Дьяволу меня не надо,
Куда же я пойду?..
«In adolescence, major decisions are made. / Any fool is taught grammar and reason. / But I / was kicked out of my school in 5th grade / and thrown in and out of the Moscow prisons. / Your / apartment-sized world / is one of the littlest. / There, you breed many curly-haired lyricists...»
«You know French. / You divide / and multiply even better. / Derive easily. / Well, keep deriving, you hear me? / Tell me this — / can you sing with the buildings / together? / Do you know the language streetcars are speaking? / The human fledgling / from the egg first rises —...»
«Adults are busy. / With bills in each pocket. / Love? / Sure! / For a hundred or so. / But I / wandered broke, / homeless / and ragged, / having no money / and no place to go. / It's night. / You put on your finest faces. / On wives and widows, you practice your moves. / ...»
«More than allowed / And much more than needed — / As though / disillusioned by the poetic fate — / the lump of the heart grew bigger and bigger, / and big was my love, / and big was my hate! / Under that burden, / the feet / stumbled forward — / I was / always well built ...»