You’re always enigmatic and new,
And I am ready to serve your desire,
But the love that I’m getting from you
Is a trial by iron and fire.
You don’t allow me to smile or sing,
You’ve forbid me to pray long ago.
And I’m glad to lose everything
Just so long as you don’t let me go!
Thus I live, without singing at all.
Neither sky nor earth is for me.
From both, hell and heaven, you stole
My spirit, which used to be free.
Ты всегда таинственный и новый.
Я тебе послушней с каждым днём,
Но любовь твоя, о друг суровый,
Испытание железом и огнём.
Запрещаешь петь и улыбаться,
А молиться запретил давно.
Только б мне с тобою не расстаться
Остальное всё равно!
Так, земле и небесам чужая,
Я живу и больше не пою,
Словно ты у ада и у рая
Отнял душу вольную мою.
«From the last carriage I watch the place go by, / goodbye, goodbye my summer, / we must go, / axes stun the dacha now, / my house, nail up the timber, / goodbye, my woods have lost their leaves, / they are empty and sad / like the case the music leaves / an accordion gone d...»
«Moscow is milling with watermelons. / Everything breathes a boundless freedom. / And it blows with unbridled fierceness / from the breathless melonvendors. Stalls. Din. Girls’ headscarves. / They laugh. Change bangs down. Knives and a choice sample slice. / — Take one, chief, for a l...»
«In these days of unheard-of suffering / One is lucky indeed to have no heart: / Crack-shots plug me again and again, / But have no luck. Riddled with holes, I laugh / At the furious pack: “Tally-ho, boys! / I am a lattice. Look through me. / Isn’t the landscape lovely?” But suppo...»
«Against the rest of the playground"s kids / She bears the resemblance of a froglet. / Worn-out shirt of hers is tucked in boxers, / Curls of her reddish hair are rid / Of comb, her mouth"s long, teeth aren"t well-ordered, / Her set of features is irregular and pointed. / The fathers of t...»