Round my neck a rosary of fine beads,
I plunge my arms up to the elbow
In a muff, my eyes distractedly
Stare at a world I no longer weep over.
The silk gown’s mauve luster
Accentuates the paleness of my face.
Cut in a fringe, my straight hair
Reaches almost to my eyebrows.
This measured walk of mine is far
From free flight through the air.
I seem to balance on a raft —
These are not parquet squares.
The lines of my pale mouth untense,
Labored breathing shakes
The flowers pinned to my breast
For a meeting that didn’t take place.
На шее мелких четок ряд,
В широкой муфте руки прячу,
Глаза рассеянно глядят
И больше никогда не плачут.
И кажется лицо бледней
От лиловеющего шелка,
Почти доходит до бровей
Моя незавитая челка.
И непохожа на полет
Походка медленная эта,
Как будто под ногами плот,
А не квадратики паркета.
А бледный рот слегка разжат,
Неровно трудное дыханье,
И на груди моей дрожат
Цветы небывшего свиданья.
«A stark barren fact that all logic opposes, / Bare truth that oppresses my soul: / Atrid lies dead on a bed of red roses, / So how can I live, how my grief to condole? All that we dreamt of, always and ever, / Longings and yearnings and fears, / All was made flesh in his purest endeavor...»
«White churches stand tall and there’s resonant, glistening ice, / And the cornflower-blue is abloom in my son’s precious gaze. / Nights strung with diamonds hang high on the ancient town’s heights, / More yellow than linden-flower honey the sickle-moon’s rays. Dry blizzards blow in fr...»
«(The Overseas Ostrich) Here I come, / in feathers of stanzas, meter and rhyme, / an overseas ostrich, in sum, / is what I’m. / Trying, do I, my poor noggin to hide, / to deep under jangling of plumage abide. I’m not yours, you snow-smothered monstrosity! / Deep, burrow deep / int...»
«The year will come, a year pitch black for Holy Rus, / When crown from head of Romanovs will fall; / The rabble once in thrall to tsars will let sheer havoc loose, / To feed on blood and bloody death will be the lot of all. That year will see the time when law is brought to naught, / When g...»