(For Dmitri Shostakovich)
Something miraculous burns in music;
as you watch, its edges crystallize.
Only music speaks to me
when others turn away their eyes.
When fearful friends abandoned me
music stayed, even at my grave,
and sang like earth’s first shower of rain
or flowers suddenly everywhere alive.
Д. Д. Ш.
В ней что-то чудотворное горит,
И на глазах её края граня́тся.
Она одна со мною говорит,
Когда другие подойти боятся.
Когда последний друг отвёл глаза,
Она была со мной в моей могиле
И пела словно первая гроза
Иль будто все́ цветы заговорили.
«Times aren’t what they were like, people feel dislocated, / And the ground underfoot’s not the same, don’t you doubt it. / Was a time with their God people cooperated, / Then they had second thoughts-they would manage without Him. Granny dearest, you haven’t a body to talk to. / In ...»
«Taras, in the tale / Gogol tells us, was tough... / No quarter he gave / Foe or traitor. / I hear him call / At midnight to his son, / “The child of my loins, I shall slay thee!” The beautiful pani, / Andrii’s fateful love, / Pale-faced, old Taras implores mutely... / The pi...»
«Our rifles at the ready, / Bayonets gleaming with blue light, / As we rode a star peeped shyly / Through the darkness of the night. Our horses walked on slowly, / Bridles lay slack in our grip, / “Mercury that star is named,” / Pensively I let the word slip. When the fight is in th...»
«The street-cars at midnight / Are quiet in the street, / The law-abiding people / Are all fast asleep. / Midnight near the balcony / The branches is stirring, / Quiet is Arithmetic / And Algebra’s snoring. Midnight has arisen / O’er the Soviet Union. / Side by side with angles...»