Oh, if I’ve known, when, in dress of whiteness,
Muse was just coming to my living place,
That to the lyre, stoned in the timeless,
My hands’ warm flesh will be forever pressed.
Oh, if I’ve known, when was flying fierce
And playful tempest of my love, the last,
That to the best of youths, in bitter tears,
I’ll close his, like eagle’s, dear eyes.
Oh, if I’ve known, when, by my successes
Pined, I was tempting destiny, discreet,
That soon with laugh, so scornful one and merciless,
Will people answer to my last entreat.
О, знала ль я, когда в одежде белой
Входила Муза в тесный мой приют,
Что к лире, навсегда окаменелой,
Мои живые пальцы припадут.
О, знала ль я, когда неслась, играя,
Моей любви последняя гроза,
Что лучшему из юношей, рыдая,
Закрою я орлиные глаза…
О, знала ль я, когда, томясь успехом,
Я искушала дивную Судьбу,
Что скоро люди беспощадным смехом
Ответят на предсмертную мольбу.
«He passed the sloping garden, crunched through the grayish gravel, / Took note of reservoirs of water faraway marooned, / Sat on a bench and peered at Yaila mountain range that loomed / Beyond the new white house in sunglare-dazzle. Tail drooping, on one leg in bush nearby / Stood languis...»
«The tranquil gaze, your eyes so like a doe’s, / All in that gaze once loved so tenderly / On grievous days I cherish, keep, but slenderly, / For haze and mist your visage now enclose. The day will come when even sadness fades, / When reminiscence glitters, azure-blue, / In dreams with g...»
«I love to play the idle spy, / And watch, oblivious to all, / A swoop-flit swallow on the fly, / O’er pond as evening nears nightfall. Look there, see how she darts and skims / Along the lip of glazed-smooth mere; / I’m worried lest a ripple’s whims / Snatch up her blitzwing on th...»
«A wondrous Moscow day in May, / Each cross on church aglitter, / Outside the swallows roundelay, / Their gurgle-chirp and twitter. By window seated in love’s sway, / My young soul sick, besotted, / The belfies’ bee-buzz far away / The air with droning slarted. Then suddenly came on...»