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.
«Not by old masters, rich on crowded walls, / My house I ever sought to ornament, / That gaping guests might marvel while they bent / To connoisseurs with condescending drawls. / Amidst slow labors, far from garish halls, / Before one picture I would fain have spent / Eternity: where the ...»
«King of Heavens! Release / My sick soul to its peace! / For the errors of earth / Send oblivion's dearth; / To thy stern paradise / Give my heart strength to rise.»
«Departed brother, who has disturbed your sleep / And trampled on the sanctity of the tomb? / Into your house, all dug up, I stepped down — / I took your skull in my hands, dusty and yellow. The remnants of your hair — it wore them still. / I saw the slow course of decay upon it. / Hor...»
«I shall saddle a horse, / A swift courser, he, / I shall fly, I shall rush, / As the hawk is keen, / Over fields, over seas, / To a distant land. / I shall overtake there / My young youth again. / I shall make myself spruce / Be a blade again, / I shall make a fine show / For t...»