To fall ill as one should, deliriously
Hot, meet everyone again,
To stroll broad avenues in the seashore garden
Full of the wind and the sun.
Even the dead, today, have agreed to come,
And the exiles, into my house.
Lead the child to me by the hand.
Long I have missed him.
I shall eat blue grapes with those who are dead,
Drink the iced
Wine, and watch the grey waterfall pour
On to the damp flint bed.
Земной отрадой сердца не томи,
Не пристращайся ни к жене, ни к дому.
У своего ребенка хлеб возьми,
Чтобы отдать его чужому.
И будь слугой смиреннейшим того,
Кто был твоим кромешным супостатом.
И назови лесного зверя братом,
И не проси у Бога ничего.
«Breasts beneath kisses, as though under a tap! / Summer’s stream won’t run for ever. / We can’t pump out the accordion’s roar / night after night, in a dusty fever. I’ve heard of age. Terrible prophecies! / No wave will lift its hands to the stars. / They say — who believes? N...»
«How lovely those journeys into quiet! / Boundless the steppe, like a seascape, / ants rustle, and the feather-grass sighs, / mosquitoes go whining through space. The hayricks line up with the clouds, / volcano after volcano, they fade. / Grown silent, damp, the boundless steppe, / you d...»
«Then summer said goodbye / to the station. Lifting its cap, / the thunder took souvenirs, / hundreds of shots on the fly. The lilac went black. And that / instant, gathering whole armfuls / of lightning, the far clearing lit / the white station-master’s shack. And when the whole roof...»
«Blurred by a lilac heat, the meadows: / in the wood, cathedral shadows swirled. / What on earth was left for them to kiss? So / like wax, soft in the fingers, theirs, the world. There’s a dream — you do not sleep, you only / dream you long for sleep: someone’s dozing, / two black su...»