To G. V.
Darkness has covered the room an’
it’s quiet and still as can be.
Good heavens! Your Majesty Woman,
you really want to see me?
Lighting is muddy in here,
the walls have a leakage trace...
Your Majesty Woman! Oh dear!
How did you get to this place?
My goodness! You came like a fire.
Smoke makes me gasp, I can’t breathe...
Now do come in, I desire.
Don’t stand in the doorway, please.
Where do you come from, my pretty?
How funny! I must be on edge...
You have mistaken the city,
the door, and the street and the age.
Г. Венгеровой
Тьмою здесь все занавешено
и тишина, как на дне...
Ваше Величество, Женщина,
да неужели — ко мне?
Тусклое здесь электричество,
с крыши сочится вода,
Женщина, Ваше Величество,
как Вы решились сюда?
О, Ваш приход — как пожарище,
дымно и трудно дышать.
Ну, заходите, пожалуйста,
что ж на пороге стоять.
Кто Вы такая? Откуда Вы?
Ах, я смешной человек.
Просто Вы дверь перепутали,
улицу, город и век.
«Addis Ababa, city of roses. / Near the bank of transparent streams, / No earthly devas brought you here, / A diamond, amidst gloomy gorges. Armidin garden … There a pilgrim / Keeps his oath of obscure love / (Mind, we all bow before him), / And the roses cloy, the roses red. There, ...»
«In corridors dead-locked and halls like the deserts / Hilarious masks today gathered together, / With flowers the chambers entwined and the closets / Wild dances have stormed like the autumnal weather. The Moons with the dragons have wandered embracing, / The vases Chinese trashed about bet...»
«Only one thing torments my delirium: / how certain sharp lines go on for ever, / and a bell rings and rings and rings / like a clock marking off eternity. Just so, after death, / eyes stare into darkness / (the agonized hope of resurrection) / trying to see familiar visions. But there ...»
«In my delirium, only the endlessness / Of some sharp lines plagues me, / And the bell incessantly tolls / As a clock, striking eternity. It seems to me, that after death it’s how, / With an agonising hope of resurrection, / The eyes get fixed on the surrounding murk, / Seeking the old...»