I should have seen the sign: “Fresh paint”,
But useless to advise
The careless soul, and memory's stained
With cheeks, calves, hands, lips, eyes.
More than all failure, all success,
I loved you, for your skill
In whitening the yellowed world
As white cosmetics will.
Listen, my dark, my friend: by God,
All will grow white somehow,
Whiter than madness or lamp shades
Or bandage on a brow.
«Не трогать, свежевыкрашен», —
Душа не береглась,
И память - в пятнах икр и щек,
И рук, и губ, и глаз.
Я больше всех удач и бед
За то тебя любил,
Что пожелтелый белый свет
С тобой — белей белил.
И мгла моя, мой друг, божусь,
Он станет как-нибудь
Белей, чем бред, чем абажур,
Чем белый бинт на лбу!
«Let’s sit down close by, darling, / Let your eyes encounter mine. / I would like to feel my heart wheel / To the meekness of your eyes. Both this lavish gold of autumn / And the blondish of a hair tress – / Every little thing has cropped in / To relieve a restless scapegrace. I ...»
«I love God’s wrath, this Evil! / Invisible, mysterious, poured through everything: / in the flowers, in the glass-clear stream, / in the rainbow-rays, in the very sky of Rome. / The same high, cloudless sky, / your breast's same sweet breath, / the same warm wind rustling tree-to...»
«We'll depart this world for ever, surely, / To repose in peace and quite. Oh, my Lord! / Maybe, I shall also have to duly / Pack my things preparing for the road. / / Oh, my birch-tree woods! Amazing pictures! / Oh, my dear land! My sandy plains! / In the face of crowds of mortal crea...»
«how many times encircled by / a motley crowd / in front of me / as in a dream cacophonies of dance / & music / speeches learned by heart / in phatic whispers mixing with shapes of people / absent a mind or soul / grimacing masks / yet so fastidious much as they touch / my cold...»