O, there are words that cannot be repeated,
Whoever said them — overspent his due.
The only things that cannot be depleted
Are God’s forgiveness and the heaven’s blue.
О, есть неповторимые слова,
Кто их сказал — истратил слишком много.
Неистощима только синева
Небесная и милосердье Бога.
«One day a German sniper may hit me in my gullet, / Or, from some Nazi rookie I'd get a crazy bullet, Or else, a mine could shred my legs with shrapnel scatters / This war will do me in; but how? It doesn't matter. And then I will be lying there no name to me, nor glory / My frozen gaze still...»
«Recall the day when sleepy water / Seemed green and lazy at the shore? / All of a sudden, we both spotted / Two warships, gray — and then two more. And all at once, the world expanded / And opened like a story book, / The sailors passed us by; we envied / Their tan and their foreign l...»
«All transient regimes that crumbled / All fleeting rules that were effaced / Have not disturbed Ravenna's slumber, / Lulled in eternity's embrace. The toiling slaves no longer carry / Mosaics through the Roman gates. / And glowing sunset colors tarry / On tall cathedrals' golden plates....»
«Far off at sea the sails were roving. / Oblivious to the heat, plane-trees / Unfolded their flowers slowly / And lost them to November breezes. I n the old park the branches crowded / Over a bench with whitewashed planes; / The smell of grapes seemed like a cloud / Embracing Georgian wo...»