Love conquers, deceitful and slow,
With a soft amateurish refrain.
So strange to think — not long ago
You weren’t dejected and gray.
In the garden, at home, in the field,
Whenever she flashed her smile,
Wherever you were, you believed
You were free and out in the wild.
Once taken by her, you glowed
And you drank her poisons, content.
Because all the stars seemed to grow,
And fields had a different scent,
Autumn fields.
Любовь покоряет обманно,
Напевом простым, неискусным.
Еще так недавно-странно
Ты не был седым и грустным.
И когда она улыбалась
В садах твоих, в доме, в поле,
Повсюду тебе казалось,
Что вольный ты и на воле.
Был светел ты, взятый ею
И пивший ее отравы.
Ведь звезды были крупнее,
Ведь пахли иначе травы,
Осенние травы.
«Resplendent in their biblical glory / Above the city float the flaming clouds; / The angel that tops Peter and Paul's fortress / Looks through them into centuries massed…. But my vision is clear and it’s uncertain / What lies beyond – what dreams, sunsets, cities / Will replace the...»
«Look for me in spring's transparent air. / I flit like vanishing wings, no heavier than / a sound, a breath, a sunray on the floor; / I'm lighter than that ray — it's there: I'm gone. But we are friends for ever, undivided! / Listen: I'm here. Your hands can feel the way / to reach me w...»
«Not my mother, but a Tula peasant, / Eléna Kúzina, fed me her breast. / She warmed my swaddling-clothes above the stove, / and with her cross at night my dreams were blessed. She knew no fairy tales and never sang: / but always kept as treats for me instead / inside her treasured w...»
«The heat was unbearable. The forests were burning. / Time passed languorously. At the neighboring dacha / A cock was crowing. I went outside the gate. / There, leaning upon the fence, an itinerant Serb, / Rail-thin and dark, was snoozing on the bench. / A heavy silver cross hung suspended ...»