Once we all used to abide
together with God, side by side,
He didn't dwell in the sky,
we'd see him from time to time
alive, on the mausoleum.
He was much more clever and evil
than that other God, the old one,
known to the world as Jehovah,
whom he overthrew with a crash
and reduced to a heap of ash,
then subsequently restored
and recruited to serve the cause.
For once we all used to abide
together with God, side by side.
One day as I wandered around in
the Arbat, I met God on parade
with five limousines and surrounded
by guards wearing mousy grey
overcoats, hunched in dread.
It was early and late — overhead
the grey light of morning was showing
as he grazed with his cruel, all-knowing
eyes through the hearts of men,
unmasking deviants and traitors.
For we lived in an era when
God himself was our neighbour.
Мы все ходили под богом.
У бога под самым боком.
Он жил не в небесной дали,
Его иногда видали
Живого. На мавзолее.
Он был умнее и злее
Того — иного, другого,
По имени Иегова,
Которого он низринул,
Извел, пережег на уголь,
А после из бездны вынул
И дал ему стол и угол.
Мы все ходили под богом.
У бога под самым боком.
Однажды я шел Арбатом.
Бог ехал в пяти машинах.
От страха почти горбата,
В своих пальтишках мышиных
Рядом дрожала охрана.
Было поздно и рано.
Серело. Брезжило утро.
Он глянул жестоко, мудро
Своим всевидящим оком,
Всепроницающим взглядом.
Мы все ходили под богом.
С богом почти что рядом.
«They’ve locked the door of my abode / With a key lost forever; / The Black Angel, my guardian, / Stands with a flaming sword, But my anguish won’t see / The luster of the wreath and the purple of the throne, / And on my maidenly hand — / The useless ring of Solomon. The rubies of...»
«Ego vox ejus! In the blind nights of the new moon, / Filled with a mute anxiety, / Bewitched by a sorceress, / I am standing by a dark window. The candles, doubled by the glass, / Shine both before and behind me, / And the strange appearance of the room / Threatens with the chance of a...»
«The heart of another (yours, reader? / Yours, dreamer? / Yours, stranger?) / Beats in my breast, / Growing heavier, more unrhythmical, / Night and day and even in sleep, / Repeating over and over — / Something I don’t understand. On the wall, the floor, the window — / Silvery ...»
«Asleep and wide-awake / I live in utter joy. / — I.O. In an alien land, / An alien family, / An alien auto... / Why am I here?.. Well yes, of course, even / I Once had My land, / My home, / My family, / And my very own black poodle Krak. All this is true. / But then / When...»