If all who have begged help
From me in this world,
All the holy innocents,
Broken wives, and cripples,
The imprisoned, the suicidal —
If they had sent me one kopeck
I should have become ‘richer
Than all Egypt’...
But they did not send me kopecks,
Instead they shared with me their strength,
And so nothing in the world
Is stronger than I,
And I can bear anything, even this.
Если б все, кто помощи душевной
У меня просил на этом свете, —
Все юродивые и немые,
Брошенные жены и калеки,
Каторжники и самоубийцы, —
Мне прислали по одной копейке,
Стала б я «богаче всех в Египте»,
Как говаривал Кузмин покойный...
Но они не слали мне копейки,
А со мной своей делились силой,
И я стала всех сильней на свете —
Так что даже это мне не трудно.
«I sit behind bars in the dankest of blocks. / A captive young eagle, the king of the hawks, / My sorry companion here, lifting his wings, / Pecks bloody food by the sill, pecks and flings, And looks out the window, away, away off, / As if he, with me, fell to thinking one thought. / He su...»
«Away from home, I reverently observe / The age-old custom of my native land: / At Eastertide, the bright feast of rebirth, / I set a little bird free, by my hand. And thus I have access to consolation; / For why 'gainst God should I e'er grumble so, / If on one little being of His creatio...»
«In far Siberia's deepest soil, / Preserve your proud, unflagging patience; / They won't be lost — your bitter toil, / And striving, lofty meditations. The faithful sister to all woe, / Hope, in your subterranean houses, / Courage and gaiety soon arouses; / The hoped-for time will come...»
«Are you still alive, my starushka? / I am too, and I wanted to write. / I hope evening still bathes the cottage / in the same indescribable light. They tell me that you try to hide it, / but I'm causing you pain and distress. / You walk out on the road after supper / in your tattered an...»